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Roman Gniocchi
Put three ounces of fresh butter into a saucepan with half a pint of boiling water and a seasoning of salt, cayenne, and powdered mace. As soon as the water reaches the boiling point stir in very gradually six ounces of fine flour, and beat the batter with a wooden spoon till it is quite smooth and leaves the saucepan in a lump with the spoon; then add the yolks of four eggs and the whites of two, and two table-spoonfuls of grated Parmesan. Work the pastry briskly for two or three minutes, and dredge flour upon it to keep it from sticking to the fingers, then roll it into the form of small sausages. Throw the rolls into boiling water, and keep them boiling for ten minutes. Drain them, lay them on a dish, pour a little good brown gravy over them, and serve very hot. Time to boil the gniocchi, ten minutes. Probable cost, 1s. Sufficient for three or four persons.
This is not the semolina gnocchi most people mean by "alla romana" — it is a choux paste (the same flour-water-butter panade used for profiteroles), enriched with Parmesan and poached. Get the paste dry and the water calm and the rest follows.
- The hinge: dry the pasteAfter the flour goes in, keep beating over the heat until the mass balls up and leaves a thin film on the pan bottom — that is what "leaves the saucepan in a lump" means. Underdried paste absorbs water in the pot and disintegrates.
- MeasuresHalf a pint is 10 fl oz in the British imperial measure of this book, about 1¼ cups. Three ounces of butter is 6 tablespoons; six ounces of fine flour is roughly 1⅓ cups, and it should be weighed rather than scooped.
- Cool before the eggsLet the paste sit a few minutes off the heat, then beat in the yolks and whites one addition at a time. Added to a scalding panade the eggs scramble and the paste turns grainy.
- Poach, do not boilA hard rolling boil risks breaking these up. Use well-salted water held at a bare shiver. Finger-thick rolls may be ready before the ten minutes the recipe allows — they firm to the touch shortly after they rise, so check them rather than relying on the clock.
- ShapingThe paste is soft; flouring the hands as directed works, but a piped log cut into lengths straight over the water is faster and gives even cooking.
- Mace and cayennePowdered mace loses its perfume quickly on the shelf. Use a small pinch of freshly ground blade mace, and cayenne only enough to warm the background — this is seasoning, not heat.
- "Good brown gravy"A brown gravy of the period, made from meat stock; Victorian versions were often thickened with browned flour, though a reduced beef or veal stock finished with butter serves well here.
- Yield and serviceThree or four as a first course or a side. They deflate as they cool, so sauce and serve immediately; drained gnocchi also brown well in butter if the meal is delayed.
Cassell's spelling, gniocchi, is a variant whose origin is unclear, and the dish behind it is a hybrid rather than anything you would eat in Rome. Roman gnocchi proper are made from semolina cooked in milk, cut in rounds and baked with butter and cheese; what this recipe describes is choux paste poached in water, the preparation French kitchens came to call gnocchi à la parisienne. Nineteenth-century English cookery often took its Italian dishes secondhand from French professional practice, which explains both the technique and the finish of brown gravy — an unmistakably French sauce laid over a supposedly Italian dish. The listed cost of one shilling and the note "sufficient for three or four persons" belong to the dictionary's standard format, aimed at a household cook budgeting a dinner of several small courses.