Giovedi Gnocchi

Yesterday at lunch, we stopped in Trattoria de Lareto, and were greeted by Loreto himself. He does not speak English, but with a menu, we are able to communicate well. We order the antipasto dish, expecting an American antipasto plate: some olives, a pepper, a few slices of salami. Our antipasti arrived and we were pleasantly surprised to find a selection of sliced, grilled vegetables: zucchini, eggplant, greet ad red peppers. Delicious!

Donald has been on a twenty-year search for his grandmother’s gnocchi – il Gnocchi di Nonna we call them. Gnocchi are small potato dumplings, about the size and shape of the last joint of your little finger. They are served with some kind of Italian sauce – usually a tomato sauce. It is not the sauce that is important to Donald, but the gnocchi themselves. When he finds gnocchi in a restaurant, he will often order them. Therefore, he is an expert in the gnocchi. He likes them light and fluffy.

Driving into Rome from the airport on Monday, the subject of gnocchi came up. The driver says, “oh, we have gnocchi on Thursday: Giovedi gnocchi (“Thursday” gnocchi). We think, what is this? Like doing laundry on Monday? We have Gnocchi on Thursday? We decided to see what happened on Thursday.

We enjoyed our lunch at Trattoria de Lareto. Business cards were on the tables, and we noticed that they claimed to serve gnocchi, but there were no gnocchi on the menu. I call over the waiter – When can we eat gnocchi? I ask. He thinks a bit. “Domani”, he says. Tomorrow!. Giovedi gnocchi? I ask. Yes, Giovedi gnocchi.

The driver had not invented the idea of giovedi gnocchi. Apparently Thursday is gnocchi day

Today was Thursday. We took a break from our travels around town this afternoon and went back to Lorento’s for giovedi gnocchi. Mmm Mmm . Donald reported that, no, they were different from Nonni’s Gnocchi, but they were, and I quote, “really good”.