I should say that the real author of this recipe is my grandmother Immacolata De Lisio, but she has been dead for 35 years, and in her honour I wanted to collect her best recipes. Those that made me dream and that made me wait anxiously the moment we sat at the table.
There was no need to ask my grandmother "what are we eating? How many are we at the table?" because every time she surprised us with something unique.
My grandmother, as a good Neapolitan, had fixed points such as "cooking is a way of taking care of yourself and others". Typically Neapolitan: where the "we" at the table is highly desirable!
Dinner, lunch or even breakfast are moments of fun and hospitality in which food is the element of union. Every day was a party, an occasion to set the table taking care of every detail.
And it doesn't matter if we were alone to eat or if instead the whole family was there with friends and relatives, if from 2 we became 10 or 20 or even 50 people.
I remember the tables on the beach with pots of first courses, and then the second courses, and then the side dishes, the creams ... Not to mention the desserts, the liqueurs and in the afternoon, even the pizzas!
And so, in honour of the queen of the table, I decided to relate Nonna Imma's recipes, because they have been written with love and have been tried by our whole family.
It has transformed cooking into a real art with which to take care of people: do it too. And I reveal to you some secrets and additions that make them truly special.
You must put love on the table laden with food.

Recipe of Gnocchetti alla Don Raffaele

Ingredients for 5 people:

• Flour gr. 400,

• Semolina gr.

• 150, water gr. 500,

• 3 tablespoons of oil,

• Fior di latte mozzarella cheese gr. 150,

• Parmesan gr. 50,

• Fresh tomato sauce

Everything starts from boiling water. Take a polsonetto (hemispherical shaped saucepan), or a copper pan with round walls, and boil the water with two tablespoons of oil and salt. If you don't have it you can use a steel pot.
When the water has boiled, throw in the flour and semolina all at once and stir and turn vigorously with a wooden spoon to obtain a nice ball of homogeneous mixture.
Let the mixture cook over a light flame for about 10 minutes until you hear it sizzle. At this point you can pour it on the table and, as soon as it has bearable heat, work it with your hands for 15 minutes adding another spoonful of oil.
Now you are ready to form fingers of the thickness of the breadsticks which you will then cut into many chunks the size of a shelled hazelnut.
Since the pasta does not stick together, I advise you to save time by forming 4-5 rows of ‘fingers’ and cutting them together to obtain the dumplings.
At this point the gnocchi are ready and must be cooked in abundant salted water. When it rises to a boil, throw the dumplings in a couple of times and take them out when, after a few minutes, they will rise to the surface. Use the skimmer and drain them well.
Put a base of sauce (or ragù) and a layer of gnocchi, parmesan and mozzarella in a terracotta saucepan. Then make sauce again and continue with the overlaying until all the ingredients are used up.
Pass over moderate heat and gently turn a few minutes until the fior di latte (mozzarella) begins to hang together. Serve, they are delicate and inviting.
If you prepare a larger quantity of pasta, the cooked gnocchi can be stored in an open container with plastic tissue paper for 4-5 days. Put them in the lower part of the refrigerator and, when serving, pour them for one minute into boiling water. Then add seasoning.
But most importantly, then share them with friends and eat them with joy.