GNOCCHI ALLA ROMANA (ROMAN SEMOLINA GNOCCHI) – Recipe by Piero Benigni – This tasty and delicate dish, even if typical of Rome and surrounding Region, is popular throughout Italy and abroad. It’s cheap, simple and easy to do even for those with little skill in the kitchen. These gnocchi can be prepared well in advance in the baking pan and kept in the fridge ready for the oven. Let’s see the true recipe.
Ingredients for 2 persons
- 130 gsemolina (4 1/2 oz)
- 60 gbutter (2 oz)
- 70 gcheese (Parmesan, 2 1/2 oz)
- 500 mlmilk (2 cups or 18 oz)
- 1yolk
- 1 pinchsalt
- nutmeg (at taste)
- 1 pinchblack pepper
- 3 leavessage
Tools for gnocchi alla romana
- Cooker
- Oven
- Casserole
- Bowl
- Whip
- Wooden Spoon
- Baking paper
- Scale
- Brush
- Chopping Board
- Knife
- Baking Dish
Getting ready
First weight and keep semolina flour, butter, parmesan and yolk ready. Cut in 2 or 3 pieces sage leafs. Pour milk in the saucepan and put over a mild flame. Add a pinch each of salt and black pepper, plus some nutmeg at your taste. When the milk is near to a boil add little by little the flour while stirring continuously with the whip. Avoid lumps.
Carry on stirring. As soon as the dough thickens, turn the flame off and add 3/4 of the butter. Turn to melt then add the yolk and 3/4 of the Parmesan. Mix well, taste and add some salt if needed, then mix again.
Put a sheet a baking paper on the board and put the dough on it. Form a cylinder of about 1 1/2″ (4-4.5 cm) diameter. Compact the dough with the hands and make the ends flat.
Tightly roll the dough, rubbing and compacting it while turning with both hands, then twist the paper ends and let it cool. Put in the fridge for at least half one hour. You can anyway keep it in the fridge as long as you like, even until the following day.
In order to prepare the baking dish unroll the paper, make the ends flat and start cutting with a sharp knife. Gently put them in the dish, partly superposed like tiles on a deck as shown in the photos. The discs should be around 1 1/14″ thick (10-11 mm).
Cooking the gnocchi alla romana
Melt the remaining butter with the sage, brush it over the raw gnocchi and scatter the sage pieces. Last thing spread the remaining Parmesan.
Finally put the dish in preheated oven, not fan assisted, 180 °F (180 °C) with heat above and below and position halfway up. Watch the cooking and wait for some crust to form. However, if not formed after 25 minutes, switch to fan assistance or move the plate one position up. When cooking is done serve quickly, possibly on heated dishes.
The raw gnocchi can be kept in the fridge for 2 days before cooking, protected with plastic film. Same if cooked. They can be frozen raw or cooked and will last up to 3 months.
NOTE
The alternative method of making the discs is this: take the dough out from the saucepan, form a big lump, let cool, wrap with a film and finally put in the fridge for half an hour. After this the dough has to be rolled out at the said thickness and the discs cut with a pastry cutter, a glass or a cup of the right size. Of course the remains have to be knead again, then more discs cut and so on until there is some dough left.
Link of gnocchi alla romana and others
SPAGHETTI AGLIO OLIO PEPERONCINO