Valentine's Day Pillow Talk

I love Gnocchi.  It is a love that began when I was in High School in South Pasadena, CA when my girl, Vikki and I used to go on dinner dates to Carmines Italian Restaurant. It was she who introduced me to my very first bite of Gnocchi, which I believe, as teenagers we mis-pronounced as "no chi".  Carmines' baked Gnocchi Marinara was incredible and it opened my eyes to a lifelong love for the soft, delicate potato pasta pillows known to Italians as Gnocchi.

Gnocchi loosely translated from Italian means "lumps" and that's kind of a crass-sounding way to explain exactly what they are.  Made from a dough made of cooked potatoes, eggs and flour, Italian chefs form a long thin tube shape from the dough that is then chopped with a knife into small one inch lumps that boil for a quick minute before floating to the top (like ravioli) to announce they are done!

So when Chris and I started dating, we went out for Italian Food on one of our first few dates. It was there at Arte Cafe on the Upper West Side, where I confessed my love for Gnocchi and ordered the dish for my dinner entree. (By the way, Arte Cafe has fabulous Gnocchi if you are ever in the neighborhood.) We also frequent Don Giovanni's Restaurant in our Hells' Kitchen neighborhood, and their Gnocchi Siciliano is fantastic.

After more than a year of dating, it's basically commonplace knowledge in our relationship, that if we dine out for Italian, I'll be ordering Gnocchi, and we'll most likely share it. So for our Valentine's Date, Chris did some research on "NYC's Favorite Gnocchi". He did this more than a month in advance and made a reservation at a small, quaint little Lower East Side Cucina aptly called "Gnocco".

We came to find out after opening the menu that Gnocco is actually a dish made of fried dough and cold cuts, but no matter, it sounded like a place for Gnocchi and that's exactly what we ordered. Along with Beef Spazzatina on a bed of polenta, it was a fabulous and decadent meal for a cold night. YUM!  The gnocchi was fabulous! Soft, buttery, delicate and luscious! Perfect little pillows of potato pasta and now another favorite Gnocchi added to our NYC list!

Here is a picture of the dining room at Gnocco and the contact information below. And if you are daring enough to attempt this pasta on your own, here is Michael Chiarello's recipe for Homemade Gnocchi