Photoblog: an Italian Family Dinner

Yesterday Ditalini and her Aunt Radicchio made three pounds of gnocchi and a big pot of sauce.

When it comes to rolling and shaping gnocchi, there’s some twist of the wrist thing I never quite mastered, but Aunt Radicchio, now the matriarch of Ditalini’s Italian-American family, passed the secret on to Ditalini, who passed it on to our daughter Escargot, ensuring that proper gnocchi will continue to be prepared and served on these shores for many years to come.

Ditalini’s family, the della Fagiolis, makes sauce with two kinds of meat. Here at Château deMenthe we normally use ground beef and Italian sausage. Aunt Radicchio was in charge of yesterday’s sauce, which she prepared with a browned, medium sized chuck roast and hot Italian sausage. In compliance with family tradition we removed the meat from the finished sauce and served it on the side after tossing the gnocchi in sauce and adding some Italian parsley for looks.

Does that look good? You’d better say yes!