Like many foods, gnocchi has several different regions that lay
claim to inventing it. While we may not understand exactly where it
originated, we do know that various
forms of gnocchi have existed for centuries, says Emiko
Davies of indexed magazine Saveur.
The popular potato version didn't exist until about the
seventeenth century, when Spanish explorers brought the
tubers back from South America. Gnocchi made from other starches
has been around much longer, however. "In fifteenth century
Lombardy, gnocchi made of bread, milk, and ground almonds were
called zanzarelli. In his 1570 cookbook, Bartolomeo
Scappi has a recipe for "gnocchi" made from a dough of flour
and breadcrumbs mixed with water and pushed through the holes of a
cheese grater."
Gnocchi has also been made from corn meal, chestnut flour,
pumpkin, ricotta, and other starches and vegetables. The word
itself "is thought to come from nocca, which means knuckles,
or from the Lombard word knohha, which means knot (such as
wood knot) or walnut-all words that imply the small, tight, rounded
shape of gnocchi that we know today."
The EYB Library has over 400
different gnocchi recipes, including the Ricotta
and egg gnocchi with olives, capers, and tomato sauce from
Saveur pictured above.