In keeping with Saveur, there are a few completely different Italian phrases that will have given gnocchi its identify. The identify for this petite pasta could also be derived from nocca, the Italian phrase for knuckles, which is a reference to the ridges that give gnocchi its trademark texture, which permits sauce to stick to the pasta. Alternatively, the phrase gnocchi may very well be a variation of knohha, or knot, impressed by the tightly-packed pasta’s development.
The earliest recorded gnocchi recipe could be traced again to Rome within the first century A.D, per the South China Morning Post. It was invented by Marcus Gavius Apicius, and was crafted of a easy flour and water combination. It was then fried, earlier than being sprinkled with honey and black pepper.
Saveur tells us that the Italian Renaissance gave beginning to gnocchi recipes which might be extra much like the dish’s fashionable kind. In 1570, Renaissance chef Bartolomeo Scappi printed a recipe that featured a flour and breadcrumb dough that was extruded by way of cheese grater holes, thus making the bite-sized pasta nuggets which have come to outline gnocchi.
