Gnocchi alla Sorrentina

Jakob and Micah ready to eat

Last night Jakob and I decided to make homemade gnocchi. We still had plenty of red potatoes from Colfiorito and gnocchi, little potato dumplings, are a favorite ‘pasta’ dish of all the kids. They are not necessarily hard to make, but there are several steps involved and forming each dumpling by hand is time consuming. We started the process, boiling the potatoes for 40 minutes, at 4:00 pm. Dinner was ready by 8:00 pm (a respectable hour by Italian standards). It was a good thing I had Jakob to help me or I would still be cutting little bits of dough and shaping them into the gnocchi.

The effort was worth it. We made gnocchi alla sorrentina, a classic dish from the Bay of Naples that combines the fluffy gnocchi with a smooth tomato sauce and melted cheese. Everyone agreed that these were the best gnocchi we have ever had.

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A week of potatoes, farro, and lentils

The Colfiorito plain (through the windshield)

On our way back from Puglia last weekend, we left the Adriatic coast just south of Ancona and headed up into Umbria from the southeast. The road started off fine: two lanes in each direction with some elevated sections cutting across narrow valleys.  This road, however, soon ended and we were on a two-lane route (the SS77) that switchbacked along the mountain passes between Le Marche and Umbria. Half-drilled tunnels in the mountainsides and piers waiting to be bridged by concrete slabs gave plenty of evidence that someday the route from the Adriatic to Foligno would be fast and straight. But, for now, travelers seeking Umbria are compelled to go through every town on the way and honk as they make the next 180 turn around the slope of a mountain. We didn’t mind. Our goal was to see the Colfiorito plateau, an upland plain just inside the Umbrian border where the local products include lentils and farro. I was hoping to see the lentils growing, but Pedar reminded me that it is, in fact, winter. Instead we discovered the famous Colfiorito red potatoes.