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Gnocchi di farina gialla

(Maize flour gnocchi)

In a pot drop about 2 litres of water and a pinch of cooking salt. When the water boils, pour about 500 gr. of sieved maize flour and mix all this stuff during the whole cooking which will last about 30/40 minutes.
Then, using a spoon, put the "gnocchi" (small dumpling made of potato semolina or other ingredient) in a dish and dress them with abundant meat sauce or mushroom sauce and many grated Parmesan cheese.
This course dates back to the XVIII century and it fed many generations.

If the maize flour was cooked as polenta (porridge), in copper pot on the hearth, it was then dished out on a table and cut with cotton thread. It was usually dressed with the famous herring. This fish was hung on the ceiling by its tail and people used to pass two slices of polenta in order to flavour them. This poor nutrition, lacking of PP vitamin, was the reason of a disease called "pellagra", which spread between the people of Mugello.

Text Tebaldo Lorini
Translated by Gianna Toni


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