ñoquis del 29

Coming from an Italian family, some sort of pasta is almost always present at family get togethers. This includes gnocchis, little pasta pillows made from potatoes and flour. Every Christmas, my Grandpa made gnocchis from scratch for our family of 40. So, you can imagine my excitement when I learned of Gnocchi Day, a tradition here in Argentina.

Gnocchis (ñoquis in Spanish) are Italian, but made their way to Argentina with the Italian immigrants and their heavy influence on Argentina. The 29th of every month, restaurants serve gnocchi specials, pasta shops advertise their gnocchis, and families make them at home for dinner. This tradition comes from when payday was the 30th or the 31st so by the end of the month you had little food left in your pantry, and little money left in your wallet. Gnocchis were the obvious soluton, since the main ingredients are potato and flour, both which are very inexpensive. Seasoned grandmothers can easily and quickly throw this dish together for their family. They are made by mashing boiled potatoes, mixing them with flour, maybe a little egg and salt, rolling them out into long snakes and cutting them into little pieces. They're cooked in boiling water like other pastas. Here, variations of the recipe are popular, such as pumpkin or spinach.

As the 29th grew closer this month, I decided to have friends over to celebrate Gnocchi day. Having never made these before (does making the fork imprint after my grandpa has already done all the hard work count?) and promising a dozen friends gnocchis, I was taking a big risk. With my grandpa's recipe in hand, I began the long process.

On the 27th I boiled 1.5 kilos (a little over 3 pounds) of potatoes, peeled them, and mashed them with a fork. I covered them and put them in the fridge overnight.

The next morning I took out the potatoes, flour, an egg, and some salt. I had been dreading this next step ever since I decided to go on this cooking adventure. Today I had to mix the flour and potatoes. Too much flour and the gnocchis would be too heavy. Too little and they would fall apart in the water. I had no scale (the recipe calls for 45% of the weight of the potatoes) so had to do it by feel. I threw in some flour, an egg, and some salt, and started kneading it all together by hand. A common mistake is to keep adding and keep adding flour. But I kept adding and I kept adding. The dough was really sticky and I didn't think that felt right, but finally it seemed to reach the "right" consistency.. not that I really knew what that was supposed to be! Next, I took a handful of dough at a time and rolled it out on a floured surface, made some fork imprints, and cut it into little pieces. I transferred the fragile pieces to a floured baking sheet, and stuck them in the freezer. Between making such a big batch and it being my first time, this whole process took me a few hours. My back began aching and my wrist hurt for the rest of the day, but finally I rolled out the last bit of dough.

With all the gnoccis in the freezer until dinner time the next night, I had no idea if they were going to come out right. Would there be too much flour, causing them to sink in my guest's stomach? Or too little flour and they would fall apart in the water? The next night, with hungry guests standing by, and with my sauce and meatballs bubbling away, I boiled salted water and dropped the first batch of gnocchis in. As the recipe said, when they float they are done. I drained them, poured homemade sauce over them, called my guests in, and waited for the first bite.

Success! Everyone loved them. Or I just have really nice friends! Either way, I was proud of my cooking endeavor, although next month when the 29th rolls around I'll be going to a restaurant to celebrate!