Recipe no. 186 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 92.
Ingredients
- milk
- butter
- salt
- pepper
- nutmeg
- sifted flour
- whole eggs
- grated cheese
- bay leaf
- onion
- carrot
Preparation
- Preparing the pastePut half a litre of milk into a saucepan with 150 grams of butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg, throw in 200 grams of sifted flour, stirring briskly with a wooden spoon; the mixture should be made as swiftly as possible; for this you will hold the saucepan on the corner of the stove.
- Drying out and adding the eggsThen put it back on the heat and dry out the paste, stirring constantly; when it forms only a single mass and no longer sticks to the sides of the saucepan, take it off to the side and work in 5 or 6 whole eggs, one after another, leaving an interval of 2 minutes between each and working vigorously with the spoon. The eggs used up, work a few minutes more, mixing in a good handful of grated cheese.
- PipingPut this paste into a pastry bag fitted with a piping tube with an opening about 15 millimetres across. Close the bag, holding it in the left hand. Hold it over a saucepan of boiling salted water; on pressing with the hand the paste should come out; cut it, with a small knife, into pieces about 3 centimetres long as it comes out of the tube; it then falls into the boiling water in the shape of small corks.
- CookingOnce all the paste has been used up, let it boil for one minute only, take it off to the side and leave it covered for 5 minutes; then throw the pieces into cold water and drain them on a sieve.
- SauceSeparately, put a lump of butter the size of an egg into a saucepan, melt it and add a good spoonful of flour, without letting it brown. Moisten with half a litre of boiling milk, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, add a bay leaf, an onion and a carrot cut into dice; let cook for half an hour, then pass through a fine strainer or a straining cloth.
- Gratinating and servingPut a few spoonfuls of this sauce into a gratin dish; put a layer of gnocchi on top, coat them with sauce, sprinkle with grated cheese, put a second layer of gnocchi, sauce them as well and scatter a few pinches of cheese on top, drizzle with a few drops of melted butter and gratinate in a moderate oven, to give them time to puff up. They should double at least in volume; allow for this in choosing the dish, which should be deep enough that they do not spill over. Gnocchi need about a quarter of an hour of cooking in the oven and, as soon as they are ready, they must be served: they cannot wait; instead of being puffed up they would become flat and rather poor looking.
Reboul's text
Put half a litre of milk into a saucepan with 150 grams of butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg, throw in 200 grams of sifted flour, stirring briskly with a wooden spoon; the mixture should be made as swiftly as possible; for this you will hold the saucepan on the corner of the stove.
Then put it back on the heat and dry out the paste, stirring constantly; when it forms only a single mass and no longer sticks to the sides of the saucepan, take it off to the side and work in 5 or 6 whole eggs, one after another, leaving an interval of 2 minutes between each and working vigorously with the spoon. The eggs used up, work a few minutes more, mixing in a good handful of grated cheese.
Put this paste into a pastry bag fitted with a piping tube with an opening about 15 millimetres across.
Close the bag, holding it in the left hand.
Hold it over a saucepan of boiling salted water; on pressing with the hand the paste should come out; cut it, with a small knife, into pieces about 3 centimetres long as it comes out of the tube; it then falls into the boiling water in the shape of small corks.
Once all the paste has been used up, let it boil for one minute only, take it off to the side and leave it covered for 5 minutes; then throw the pieces into cold water and drain them on a sieve.
Separately, put a lump of butter the size of an egg into a saucepan, melt it and add a good spoonful of flour, without letting it brown.
Moisten with half a litre of boiling milk, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, add a bay leaf, an onion and a carrot cut into dice; let cook for half an hour, then pass through a fine strainer or a straining cloth.
Put a few spoonfuls of this sauce into a gratin dish; put a layer of gnocchi on top, coat them with sauce, sprinkle with grated cheese, put a second layer of gnocchi, sauce them as well and scatter a few pinches of cheese on top, drizzle with a few drops of melted butter and gratinate in a moderate oven, to give them time to puff up.
They should double at least in volume; allow for this in choosing the dish, which should be deep enough that they do not spill over.
Gnocchi need about a quarter of an hour of cooking in the oven and, as soon as they are ready, they must be served: they cannot wait; instead of being puffed up they would become flat and rather poor looking.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul writes in French: no Provençal word appears in this recipe, apart from the dish's name itself. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the words used, in mistralian spelling, translated by Lingua Nostra. Each form is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary; click to open the entry.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| desseca | dry out |
| encourpoura | work in |
| pòchi | pastry bag |
| dueio | piping tube |
| esgouta | drain |
| sedas | sieve |
| passadouiro | fine strainer |
| estamino | straining cloth |
| rabina | gratinate |
| boufa | puff up |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 186, page 92. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.