Italia

Cavallino-Treporti

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.

The dough is the test of the cook. The potatoes should be a dry, floury variety, boiled whole in their skins or baked so they take on as little water as possible, peeled hot and riced while still steaming; the less water in the potato, the less flour is needed, and the less flour, the lighter the gnocco. A classic ratio is roughly one kilo of potato to two hundred grams of flour, worked quickly and barely kneaded, because overworking develops gluten and makes them rubbery. The ridges from the fork are not decorative: they thin the dough and hold sauce. Gnocchi are dropped into boiling salted water in batches and lifted the moment they rise, then finished briefly in the sauce. Classic pairings are butter and sage, gorgonzola, a tomato sauce, ragù, or pesto in Liguria, where the local shape is the smaller trofie.

A good potato gnocco is light, tender and slightly yielding, tastes clearly of potato, and holds together in the sauce without being dense. Press one with a fork: it should give easily and not spring back. Mark down gnocchi that are heavy, chewy or gluey, which means too much flour or an overworked dough; ones that have dissolved at the edges, which means too little binding or watery potato; a pasty raw-flour taste; and the factory vacuum-packed kind, recognisable by a uniform shape, a slightly sour smell and a texture that stays firm however they are cooked. The sauce should coat rather than drown them, and a plate of gnocchi arriving in a pool of cream is hiding something. Pan-fried gnocchi with a crisp edge are a legitimate variation, not a fault.

Gnocchi

Italy

The presentation was different from what I expected. The taste was okay, but it was too greasy and definitely overpriced for what it was.

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