Why Gnocchi Can’t Be Considered Pasta

Gnocchi is an Italian dish that’s often featured alongside pasta on restaurant menus and, like pasta, it’s also typically served with tomato sauce, Alfredo sauce, or pesto sauce.

However, these medium-sized round morsels are quite different from pasta and technically fall under the “dumpling” category because of the way they’re prepared.

Gnocchi is mostly made with potatoes, whereas most types of pasta are heavily wheat flour-based with eggs or water — although gnocchi still includes a little flour for structure.

While people sometimes assume dumplings need a filling of some kind, and other people believe dumplings require leavening agents, that’s not exactly always necessary.

It just needs to be a dough that’s boiled, fried, or steamed, which means the category can cover everything from soup dumplings to dessert dumplings, and even gnocchi.