This One Is For You, Rose

My grandma had a few trademark dishes: pepper steak (which Dean and I make regularly), chicken and wine, and govadils (which I'm going to refer to as gnocchi for purposes that will become clear later). I have no idea whether I'm spelling the name of that last dish correctly, but, like I said, more on that later.

When Dean and I visited my grandma and her husband Earl in Florida eight years ago, she made us chicken and wine, and we were both utterly flabbergasted by the amount of oil in the dish. So, were we to try and make it, I'm certain neither of us would be able to use enough oil to make it taste good. When Dean saw the amount of butter my own mother puts in her sweet potatoes, I thought he was going to have a heart attack. Dean's family does not cook with copious amounts of butter and oil. Meanwhile, my grandfather will put both butter and mayo on a sandwich.

In any case, growing up, my grandma's gnocchi was always my absolute favorite dish. My aunt makes it now, and we almost always have it as a side dish at holiday dinners, regardless of the main course. Dean and I got the recipe from my aunt a few years back and tried to replicate the dish, but we failed in a big way. After my grandma died in June, I felt a renewed interest in learning to make her gnocchi. I bought ricotta cheese with the sole purpose of having the dish on my grandma's birthday, July 27. But time slipped away from us. Finally, yesterday, we decided to make it. I had since lost the recipe, so I had to call my aunt for it.

Making gnocchi is pretty time-consuming. And as I stood there rolling out the dough, forming it into little balls, I wondered why I never asked my grandma to teach me how to make it. The thing is, I think I did ask her. And I think she responded by telling me not to worry, she'd make some for me. I am certain that I was around during times when it was being made by either my grandma or my aunt because I remember specifics: the way the balls of dough are rolled over the floured cheese grater, the way the raw dough tastes. I wish I'd actually had someone teach me how to make it.

It turned out pretty well last night. I think I overcooked the gnocchi because it was a bit tougher than it should be. My pieces were also larger than the ones my grandma and aunt make. I guess it's a work in progress. I have two batches in the freezer, so we'll see if shortening the cooking time helps. Next time I make it, I hope I'll be able to interest Ella and Sadie in helping (Ella was far too interested in watching TV yesterday to help me, though she did taste the raw dough and say that it was yucky). These are the little things that keep my grandma alive for me. I hope one day, Ella and Sadie will make gnocchi for their children and tell stories about their nana, a woman who called herself a tiger and who made the world's best gnocchi. If so, I hope their children will actually eat it since mine would not.

An Interesting Side Note
Before calling my aunt for the recipe yesterday, I tried to google it. We have always called this dish "govadils." I have absolutely no idea how this would be spelled. But a google search yielded zero hits. I didn't even get the "did you mean xxx?" message you typically get when you misspell something. When I spoke to my aunt, she indicated that the dish actually starts with a "c," which makes no sense to me since I've always believed the word to start with a "g." I tried a google search for a similar dish beginning with a "c" and came up empty once again. I have never, ever seen this dish listed on an Italian menu. I have, however, seen gnocchi on Italian menus. This is a similar dish, though sometimes it is made with potatoes. I get google hits by the thousands when I search "gnocci." Nothing on "govadil" or "cavadil" or anything similar. A few possibilities exist in my mind: A) I am horribly butchering the spelling, though even searches for "Italian dish similar to gnocchi" yielded no success. B) This word "govadil" is some sort of dialect specific to the region where my grandma's (or grandpa's?) parents grew up (I think they came here from Italy, but now that I spend time thinking about it, my knowledge of my grandma's childhood is woefully incomplete). C) My grandma (or someone in her family or my grandpa's family) made this word up. My grandma had a habit of calling things by anything other than their name (she called me "Natasha" almost exclusively), so this seems a likely explanation.

I've e-mailed a friend whose husband is from Italy to see if she has heard of this dish by this particular name. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, if anyone knows this to be a spelling mistake on my part, please share!