Gnocchi

Gnocchi, in the sense most menus mean, are Italian potato dumplings: boiled floury potatoes passed through a ricer, bound with a little flour and sometimes an egg, rolled into ropes, cut into thumb-sized pieces, pressed over a fork or a ridged board, and boiled for the minute it takes them to float. The potato version dates from after the potato's arrival in northern Italy and belongs mainly to the Veneto, Lombardy, Piedmont and Friuli, though every region now makes it; older gnocchi were made of bread, flour or semolina, and several survive, among them the Roman gnocchi alla romana, baked discs of semolina with butter and parmesan, and the gnudi of Tuscany, which are ricotta and spinach. In Rome and much of central Italy, Thursday is gnocchi day in trattorias, and in Verona the Venerdì Gnocolar parade during Carnival is led by a figure carrying a giant fork with a gnocco on it.