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Gnocchi Alla Romana

A baked semolina gnocchi made with milk, butter, egg yolk, Parmesan, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Gnocchi Alla Romana

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the semolina base

  1. Pour 1 quart of milk into a deep saucepan, reserving ⅓ cup.

  2. Add 1½ oz of butter, pepper, and salt. Heat over medium until boiling.

  3. Once boiling, reduce heat and gradually stir in 3 oz of semolina.

  4. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring to prevent burning.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Mix in the reserved ⅓ cup of milk combined with 1 egg yolk. Stir carefully near the heat until smooth and velvety.

  7. Add a handful of grated Parmesan cheese.

Shape and cool

  1. Pour the mixture onto a lightly wetted marble slab or wooden board.

  2. Spread to ½ inch thick.

  3. Let cool for 2 hours.

  4. Once cooled, cut into 1-inch dice.

Bake and serve

  1. Arrange dice in a well-buttered shallow pan.

  2. Sprinkle each layer with grated Parmesan and melted butter.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Semolina + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together51 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Milk + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,608 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Milk
Cooks with the semolina to form a thick, spoonable porridge that sets when cooled.
Semolina
Provides starch that thickens the milk and gives the cooled mixture its firm, sliceable structure.
Egg yolk
Enriches the mixture and adds richness and tenderness as it sets.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the top and pan surfaces brown during baking.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and helps the top turn golden and crisp when baked.

The step that matters

Stirring the semolina into the boiling milk. Semolina added too fast or without constant stirring forms lumps and can scorch on the base. Starch needs steady stirring to hydrate evenly and thicken into a smooth mass.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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