Gnocchi alla Romana

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(CC) Photo: Hayford Peirce
Gnocchi alla Romana baked with pancetta.

Gnocchi alla Romana, or, less often, Gnocchi di semolino alla romana, is a popular Italian dish that is made with semolina flour instead of the potatoes used in the more usual kind of gnocchi widely made in both Italy and France. "Gnocchi" in Italian means "lumps", as those gnocchi made from potatoes are definitely lump-like in appearance. One English translation of the Roman version is "semolina cakes baked with butter and cheese". Rather than being lump-like, though, they are thinnish, relatively smooth disks that have been cut like cookies or biscuits from a sheet of cooled dough. Originally eaten primarily in Rome, where it remains a standard of family kitchens, gnocchi alla Romana has now spread throughout Italy. It is also made in France, where it is called gnocchi de semoule. Its ingredients are simple, and readily available in most homes: milk, semolina flour, eggs, Parmesan cheese, and butter, with salt, black pepper, and nutmeg as seasonings. The well-known Italian cooking instructor Marcella Hazen adds small strips of prosciutto, bacon, or boiled ham to the top of dish, but this is far from standard. "Semolina," Julia Child tells us, "is farina, which in turn is the residue of middle-sized particles left over from the sifting of durum wheat, the type of wheat used for making macaroni."