In the hinterland hills above Formia, Italy, a little girl named Sabrina Tatta (lecturer, French and Italian studies) watched her favorite neighbor, Maria Filosa, pass by her house, a basket of clothes gracefully balanced on her head. Gleefully accepting an extended invitation to Maria’s house, which was filled with little dogs, cats, chickens, rabbits, goats and pigs scampering about, Sabrina sat on a milking stool, carefully watching Maria cook over her fireplace and wood-burning stove.

Maria was a maestro of cooking, and Tatta herself has become a maestro of gnocchi.

To this day, Tatta cooks gnocchi for numerous occasions: her father’s birthday while visiting in Italy, book club meetings, Canasta parties with friends, students and in honor of the United Nations’ decision to nominate 2008 the year of the potato.

How to craft the Gnocchi:

To make gnocchi, you’ll need: a ricer, wooden cutting board, cookie sheet on which to lay gnocchi. You can use a fork to mash your gnocchi if you don’t have a ricer. Try to mash the lumps out but don’t overwork the potatoes or the starch will break down and your dough will be impossible to handle.

To cook gnocchi, you will need a large pot of boiling water salted with 2 tablespoons of salt and a slotted spoon. Place the gnocchi in the pot. When they float, they are cooked.

Ingredients

1 pound white potatoes or Yukon gold

1 egg

1 cup flour

Directions

Cook the potatoes. Microwave potatoes for 10 to 12 minutes until they are cooked. Or bake the potatoes for 1 1/2 hrs or less depending on size. Or boil potatoes for 30 minutes, but don’t poke them to see if they are cooked or they will be waterlogged. As soon as they are “fork tender” — use a tester potato that you can poke and waterlog all you want — put them onto a kitchen towel covered plate.

Skin the potatoes and rice them. Beat the egg in a separate bowl, then mix flour, potato and egg all together. Knead until all the ingredients are well blended. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes and then roll it out (do NOT let the dough sit longer than 10 minutes — the starch will break down and the dough will become goopy and impossible to handle).

Place gnocchi in boiling, salted water, and when they float, scoop them out with a slotted spoon and place in warm sauce. Serve hot. Buon appetito.

*These recipes assume you are making gnocchi for four lucky people and that you are making only one sauce, not both. If you make both sauces, double the gnocchi recipe.

Gorgonzola Sauce

(start the gorgonzola sauce when you finish assembling your gnocchi dough)

Ingredients

3 tablespoons of butter

1/4 pound of Gorgonzola or similar cheese (Roquefort, blue cheese)

1 1/4 cups of whole milk (or use 1/3 cup milk and 1/2 cup cream)

1/2 cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (no second class substitutes)

1/8 teaspoon of fresh grated nutmeg (skip nutmeg if you don’t have whole nutmegs to grate!)

1 bay leaf

Fresh parsley, chopped

Pinch of salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Melt the butter in a saucepan on very low heat. Place Gorgonzola, Parmigiano, milk and bay leaf in saucepan and mash the Gorgonzola with a wooden spoon. The cheese will begin to dissolve with milk. When it looks saucy, turn off the heat. Grate about 1/4 teaspoon of fresh nutmeg into the dish

When you start boiling your gnocchi, put the Gorgonzola pan back on low heat for 2 to 3 minutes to reheat and then turn off, add your gnocchi as you drain them, and gently stir with a wooden spoon. Garnish dish with freshly ground pepper and chopped parsley. Add salt to taste (optional).

Sugo di pomodoro (Tomato sauce)

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 28 ounce can whole tomatoes

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 bay leaf (not the CA bay)

Shredded basil

1/2 cup of Parmigiano-Reggiano (to flavor gnocchi at the end)

Directions

Heat oil and butter on medium heat, then add chopped onion and garlic. Cook for 8 minutes. If the onions start to stick to pan, add 1/4 cup of wine (white or red).

Cut whole canned tomatoes with kitchen scissors or crush them with a fork or a wooden spoon. Add tomatoes and bay leaf to pan. Simmer for 30 minutes or more while you make gnocchi.

When sauce does not taste “raw” anymore (30 to 40 minutes), turn off heat and add basil. Add butter in at the end for extra flavor (optional). Garnish sauced gnocchi with Parmigiano.

--Lecturer Sabrina Tatta

(French and Italian studies)

Gingersnaps:

Growing up on the long and flat grasslands of the Canadian prairies, Grace Lillian Dalley didn’t spend her childhood playing with dolls — she spent her days horse breaking. Later marrying a railroader, Dalley lived in a train car; her days and nights were still a far cry from a glamorous lifestyle.

But Grace’s cooking prowess trumped her living conditions. Every Christmas, being the grandmother of all grandmothers that she was, Grace sent each of her 10 grandchildren a batch of their favorite cookies along with a $5 bill.

A young Terry Swanson (Senior lecturer, earth and space sciences) always requested gingersnaps. Every year until he was 21, Swanson would receive this special gift in a tin cookie jar, each gift greeted with the same eager anticipation.

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup butter

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 cup sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine about half of the flour, the brown sugar, butter, molasses, egg, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and cloves. Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until thoroughly combined. Beat in remaining flour.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll them in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on an un-greased cookie sheet. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until the tops are cracked. Cool cookies on a wire rack. Makes about 4 dozen.

--Lecturer Terry Swanson (Department of earth and space sciences)

Presto Tomato Sauce:

It is a Friday night during the swinging sixties in Palo Alto, Calif. Fast food is scarce, budgets are haunting students, and stomachs are grumbling after a perennial day of classes.

One particular Stanford graduate student, partial to cooking and having the experience of helping his Italian grandmother in the kitchen, comes home to his meat-loving roommates. Being raised Catholic, he must abstain from meat on Fridays and instead, in a quick 10 minutes, conjures up a simple tasty tomato sauce — an exception to his roommates’ carnivorous palates.

Ingredients

Olive oil

16 ounce can of diced tomatoes or stewed Italian tomatoes

2 or more cloves of garlic

Cayenne pepper

Oregano

Capers (optional)

Chopped Greek olives (optional)

Meatballs (optional)

Directions

Combine a couple spoonfuls of olive oil in a skillet with a can — or two if you desire — of diced tomatoes or stewed Italian tomatoes, two or more cloves of garlic, some cayenne (or other) pepper and oregano, or any Italian seasoning. Bring to a boil and simmer for a couple of minutes. Add mixture to a blender and blend until smooth. Reheat in skillet (which will reduce consistency) later if desired. Serve with any pasta. You can add capers and/or chopped Greek olives, if you want. Meat eaters may want to throw in some of Trader Joe’s meatballs — Italian or turkey. One can of tomatoes is enough for four unless you are really greedy.

-- Professor Lawrence Bliquez (classics and art history)

Chocolate No-Bake Oatmeal Cookies:

There is no doubt about it: one of the highlights of being a kid is getting special treats and rewards for doing a good job. For Andy Loveless (lecturer, mathematics), doing a good job meant chocolate no-bake oatmeal cookies, a favorite desert that his mom made.

Today, while Dr. Loveless confesses he is not much of a cook and that most of his recipes involve putting steaks and burgers on a grill, he still likes his chocolate no-bake oatmeal cookies.

Ingredients

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1/2 cup nonfat milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 tablespoons cocoa

1/2 cup peanut butter

3 cups oats

Directions

In a medium saucepan, combine all ingredients except peanut butter and oats and cook over medium heat. Let boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter and oats.

Spoon out quickly onto wax paper or aluminum foil. Cookies will harden as they set.

--Lecturer Andy Loveless (department of mathematics)

Lamb Shanks in Ale

For most, March 1 is just any other day. But for Suzanne Withers (associate professor, geography) and others of Welsh descent, March 1 is a traditional day of feast and remembrance of the patron saint of Wales — it is St. David’s Day.

For Withers, who was born in Wales but raised in North America, the holiday is an important way of celebrating her heritage. Every year on March 1, her father would cook a Welsh dish, the following being her favorite.

Ingredients

3 lamb shanks

Salt and black pepper

1/2-1 teaspoon oregano

Olive oil

1 medium sized carrot

1 medium sized parsnip

1 medium sized onion

12 ounce bottle dark ale

1/2 cup water

Directions

Rub the lamb shanks in a little salt and pepper and then in a little olive oil. In a moderately hot frying pan, brown shanks on all sides for about 5 to 8 minutes. Place the browned shanks in a 2-quart Pyrex casserole bowl with a lid.

Slice onion, carrot and parsnip, and fry in a tablespoon of olive oil over low moderate heat until the onions are translucent. With a slotted spoon, spoon the onions, carrots and parsnips around the shanks. Scatter the oregano over the shanks and veggies and cover with the ale and water. Slowly cook in an oven at 275 degrees for 2 hours.

Let the shanks cool over night in the fridge. Now the considerable lamb fat will be a soft solid on the surface. Skim this fat off. Thicken the remaining solution with some cornstarch in cold water. Add the thickened sauce to the lamb shanks and veggies. Warm this in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes to get them ready for serving.

Serve with a green salad and crusty bread. For a very attractive presentation, you can divide the lamb meat and thickened sauce between individual ramekins and top these with puff pastry. Serves two.

*Cook this a day ahead of eating it.

-- Associate Professor Suzanne Withers (department of geography)

Four-Cheese Omelet

It is a meal for champions: the four-cheese omelet. When Cooper Schwartz was co-captain and a lineman of the Bellevue High School football team and trying to gain weight, his mother, Pepper Schwartz (professor, sociology) whipped it up for him as an extra meal. Later that year, the Wolverines ended up winning the state championship. Pepper herself is a lover of omelets and makes it for breakfast and lunch — depending on her mood.

Ingredients

2 or 3 eggs

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Fresh parsley

1/2 onion, sliced fine

Cream cheese (can be light cream cheese)

Goat cheese

Havarti cheese or some mild to medium strong white cheese

Grated cheddar or feta (some for the omelet, some to sprinkle on the top of the omelet)

Directions

Whip up the eggs. Use the olive oil for the pan and brown the onion until well done, then reserve for later. Pour the eggs into the greased pan on a low temperature. After it sets for about a minute or so, add bits of all four cheeses, distributing them widely over the omelet.

Cook very slowly.

When it is close to done, depending on how moist or dry you like your omelet, put in the onions and fold the omelet over. Brown lightly on one side, then flip for the other. Sprinkle the feta or cheddar on top and garnish with fresh parsley.

-- Professor Pepper Schwartz (Department of Sociology)