Potato and plum dumplings are a specialty from Trieste. Gnochi de susini, as they are called in dialect, are balls of potato and flour with an unusual filling: fresh plums pitted. They are dressed with frothy butter and breadcrumb flavored with cinnamon, making for a delicious first course. These plum-filled dumplings have ancient origins, seemingly Bohemian, like many others in this region. In Trieste and Friuli, they are still very popular and also served as a dessert.
After tasting them a few years ago in Trieste, I promised myself to make them at home. You need tasty and firm plums, like Stanley plums, small, oval, and purple-skinned. They ripen in September but are also available in October, and I used exactly those. Cooking potato and plum dumplings is really simple, provided you have the right ingredients.
Below you will find:
• Ingredients
• Preparation
• Cooking
• Secrets and Tips from the Queen
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 45 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Boiling
- Cuisine: Regional Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn
- Energy 559.57 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 81.26 (g) of which sugars 17.11 (g)
- Proteins 10.70 (g)
- Fat 23.61 (g) of which saturated 14.34 (g)of which unsaturated 9.09 (g)
- Fibers 11.60 (g)
- Sodium 362.67 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 200 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
- 1.1 lbs potatoes (already cleaned)
- 1.6 cups flour
- 10 plums (Stanley variety, small)
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsps brown sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tbsps breadcrumbs
- 3.5 oz butter (good quality)
- 1 egg (small)
Tools
You only need a potato masher. Then we’ll just need our hands, a knife, a fork, a large pot, and a pan.
- Potato Masher
Preparation
Boil the potatoes with the skin on or, if preferred, steam them without the skin. Then mash them while still hot with the potato masher and spread them out on the work surface to cool. Then add salt and flour, a little at a time. You won’t need it all, you can keep the leftover for flouring your hands when forming the dumplings. Break a small egg or, if it’s too large, a little less than an egg into the center of the dough. You’ll have a classic dumpling dough, with just the addition of an egg.
Wash the plums and remove the pits without completely opening them: in place of the pit, add a pinch of sugar.
Divide the dough into eight parts. With floured hands, take one part and form a hollow that perfectly encloses a plum. You will get a rather large ball, flour it and set it aside. Shape eight potato and plum dumplings this way.
All the dumplings cook in plenty of salted water. They are gently placed into the boiling water and collected with a slotted skimmer when they rise to the surface.
We should do the same, and then toss the plum dumplings in a pan with plenty of frothy butter, adding a generous sprinkle of cinnamon and breadcrumbs. Let the dumplings slowly brown and crisp on the outside while keeping a soft, unexpected heart. The aroma of butter and cinnamon will fill the kitchen, just the way I like it.
In my opinion, two dumplings per person are the right amount for a first course, but if we want to serve them as a main dish with a nice salad, we should increase the doses and make more.
It seems these plum dumplings arrived in Friuli with Bohemian diplomats from the Austro-Hungarian court. Plums were plentiful, as they were and still are a widespread cultivation, especially near the Slovenian border.
However, we owe the recipe to the extraordinary Maria Stelvio, an intellectual cook who wrote her book in the immediate post-war period. Triestine Cuisine – Practical and Economical Manual was intended for young brides, and Maria dedicated it to her daughter Augusta. Among its pages, we find a very essential recipe for plum dumplings.
I make dumplings without eggs, but I am very particular about the potatoes. I use guaranteed potatoes, mountain potatoes that never disappoint. However, the egg protects us from the risk of the dumplings falling apart during cooking, and in this case, I recommend it. One egg is enough for a kilo of potatoes, so for half a kilo, it might be too much. Use a small egg, or beat it and remove a tablespoon before adding it to the dough.
The potato and plum dumplings are quite large. They’re not the prettiest, I admit, but they are delicious and very original. They can also be made with dried plums or apricots. Remember to briefly rehydrate the dried fruit in warm water and dry it thoroughly before using it as a filling for the dumplings. With dried plums, I also make a great beef stew.
This type of rural cooking enchants me. Few ingredients and the skillful hands of women capable of bringing surprisingly good dishes to the table with nothing. Potatoes, plums, a bit of butter.
If you love simple cooking, read:
• Potato cups filled with rice – Recipe with leek sauce
• Prebuggiun and focaccine – At the origins of Ligurian cuisine
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