The Potato Pasta That Bridged a Family Across Continents
A century-old dish and a wooden gnocchi board bound my family across continents — from Calabria to Adelaide to a paneled Brooklyn basement.
In February 2000, thousands of miles from her home in Brooklyn, in the sticky summer heat of Adelaide, my Nonna was making hundreds of pounds of gnocchi. It’s a story I know by heart, one I first heard in between bites of gnocchi as a kid and now carry with me wherever I cook.
My extensive family tree, which originated in Calabria, Italy, has spread across the globe, with branches rooted in New York, Canada, Argentina, and Australia. As a result, it wasn’t a rare occurrence for my Nonna Teresa and Nonno Pasquale to book a flight. This time, however, was one of the most crucial journeys they had ever made — aside from the original immigration one, of course.
My relatives had opened a classic Italian trattoria along the Adelaide coast and needed all the help they could get to support its success. The exaggerated story goes that they were short-staffed, lacked cooking space, and had limited menu ideas, so instead of a relaxing beach vacation in the Southern Hemisphere, Nonna Teresa put on an apron and began boiling potatoes.
Under the watchful eye of my Australian great-uncle, who had been taught by his mother in Calabria, she learned how to make gnocchi and helped them establish themselves as a local gem in just over a month.
Gnocchi, a traditional Italian pasta-like dumpling, is composed of flour, eggs, potatoes, and salt — humble ingredients that are endlessly flexible. So flexible that it wasn’t even a Southern Italian staple — it came from the north. But like so many things in our family, it traveled well. This historical peasant food wasn’t the fancy fare they were expecting to be popular in the trattoria.
They had envisioned elegant coastal dishes, but it was gnocchi — simple and filling — that drew people in. My nonna returned home with the ability to spice up new menu items, an array of new meals for Sunday dinners, and a grooved wooden gnocchi board, which she would later pass on to me.
Although we never had our own restaurant or the need for an expansive menu, gnocchi became a routine family meal, always paired with a possibly overdramatized story of how my Nonna saved Italian food in Australia. It was why, when I was tasked with bringing a family tradition into my middle school Italian class, I knew it was time to ask her to teach me.
A few nights later, my immediate family gathered around the card table in my grandparents' dark, paneled cellar to hear the story once more as my Nonna showed me what she had learned years ago. She demonstrated how to boil potatoes, sticking her calloused hands into the bubbling water fearlessly, as if the heat didn’t dare touch her.
In my memory, it was as if the steam rose around her like a cloud, filled with the sharp smell of starch and determination. She mashed the potatoes in a precise but aggressive manner and rolled the newly made pillowy dough across the ridges of the handheld gnocchi board.
Over the course of an hour, we made dozens of gnocchi, leaving my fingers rough and even a little sore. But, it was one of the first times I truly found joy in cooking, a sensation that I would continue to seek with every recipe I make and every meal I try. And while I may never cross continents to rescue a new restaurant, every time I press dough against that same wooden board, I feel tethered to something far greater than myself.
It is an expansive, growing lineage of love, resilience, and potato pasta that managed to span oceans.
Homemade Potato Gnocchi in a Simple Tomato Sauce
Prep Time: 1 hour
Yields: 4 Servings
Ingredients
For the Gnocchi:
1 pound of potatoes
1 cup of flour
½ teaspoon of salt
1 medium egg
For the Sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
1-2 large cloves of garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon oregano
5 leaves of basil chopped
1 can of pelati tomatoes with sauce
½ cup water
In a large pot, bring the unpeeled potatoes to a boil until tender. Remove them from the pot and let them cool to room temperature. Remove the skin and then pass through a potato masher.
Mix together the flour and salt. Place the mixture on a flat surface, create a well in the middle, and add the potatoes and egg. Mix together with your fingers to form a soft dough; it should not stick to your fingers. On a lightly floured surface, cut small pieces of dough to form ropes and then cut each rope into smaller pieces. Then, roll the smaller piece over the ridges of the gnocchi board using your finger, being careful not to press too hard. Sprinkle a little bit of flour and toss, so they don't stick together. Let the gnocchi rest for 20 minutes before cooking. Gnocchi can be frozen if necessary.
While the gnocchi are resting, make the sauce. In a large saucepan, add olive oil, tomatoes, salt, garlic, oregano, basil, and water. Stir to combine, then cover partially and let simmer over medium heat until thickened. Remove the cover for the last few minutes to thicken the mixture.
In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook the gnocchi. Gnocchi are ready when they float to the top. Drain and add the cooked sauce. Add a little pasta water and cook for 30 seconds, gently tossing the mixture. Serve immediately, topped with fresh grated parmesan cheese if desired.
See you between the pages
-Nicolette C