Chef Andrew Carmellini of Locanda Verde, The Dutch and Lafayette: "These are handmade pasta tools that I got when I lived in Italy. There is a shop in Parma that sells and makes all of these. It's not the only store in Italy that sells them, but it's the one I go to. I keep them at Locanda Verde but I don't use them every day. If I was going to make a special kind of dough for white truffle season or something, then I would bust these out. So these would be great when I have my 15-seat trattoria outside Parma, and you come and I make you lunch for two, but for here it's not so practical to use them day to day."
"If they break? Oh no, shit! We'll have to go to Italy. I don't even want to know if you can buy these online because I want to have an excuse to go back to Parma, check out some cute girls on bikes, buy some pasta tools and then come back."
"No! These aren't naughty tools! OK, yeah sure, this is for 50 Shades of Grey Pasta. Seriously, we don't use these guys on a day-to-day basis. It's rare if we make gnocchi at the restaurant, because we literally can't keep up with the demand. It takes so long! If I was making gnocchi for tonight from start to finish, by myself, it would take me at least two hours."
Carmellini cooks homemade gnocchi in his own intense mushroom stock, then serves them with porcini butter (blended with garlic, herbs and Parmesan) and white-truffle shavings.
He serves fresh pappardelle with a ragù of house-ground lamb shoulder cooked in lamb stock. He finishes the dish with fresh ricotta and chopped mint.
