54. Gnoccacci Paesani al Sugo di Funghi Porcini di Rocca Santo Stefano

Gnoccacci are part of the culinary tradition of Rocca Santo Stefano. Until after the Second World War, the local population was mainly employed in the primary sector (farming and livestock rearing) and practised a subsistence economy, with the exception of the production of barrels and vats, which provided an income for many families through trade with various wine producers in Lazio. Consequently, the local cuisine was based on simple ingredients, sourced locally and derived directly from the work of farmers and livestock breeders. Gnoccacci (a dough made from water and flour) stem from this simple, typically rural tradition. Tomato pulp and porcini mushrooms, gathered in the chestnut woods surrounding the village, are added to the water, salt and flour. Oral accounts tell us that, during the war, the women of the village would gather wheat in the fields and take it to be ground at the local stone mill – now disused – run by the local Counts. The service was paid for with one kilogram of pure flour, whilst they took home both the remaining flour and the milling waste. The dough has always been made from water and flour, strictly without eggs, as it was a waste to use them for dough and, above all, because eggs were used to buy salt. And it is precisely because of the lack of eggs that this humble pasta, despite having the shape of fettuccine, is called ‘gnoccaccio’. This name also derives from its shape – strictly irregular – which reflects the handiwork of the village women. The product is the focus of a festival held every year in August.