Potatoes, eggs, and flour. These are the main ingredients to make a classic Italian dish: gnocchi.
During our “Gnocchi Night”, a group of Cornellians huddled in the small workshop studio to knead the dough in order to make this long-anticipated dish. Most of us seem to have had no experience making gnocchi because all of us were looking anxiously at Anna Rita, our Master Chef and Administrative Officer for the Rome Program, to provide instructions.
The kneading process itself was relatively easy—you just work the dough until it fully mixes with the flour and eggs. The hard part, though, was how to best roll the dough to the appropriate length and width, and then cutting it diagonally. This challenge resulted in many gnocchi looking oddly shaped and variegated in sizes—but these were still good, though.
To accompany the gnocchi, the staff made five different sauces, with my favorite being the one with salmon. We made so much food that there were plenty of leftovers to take home at the end. And, as a cherry on top, we were served homemade cake that one of the other staffs made.
Would I make gnocchi again? I sure will, but probably not that often given the time-consuming process. Nonetheless, Gnocchi Night was a success, everyone had fun preparing the food, and everyone left more full than they probably should be.