Sagra degli Gnocchi Cimitilesi

In the Rione Macello of Cimitile, beneath the shadow of the town's paleochristian basilicas, the women of the community still roll each gnocco by hand — flour, water, and semolina, no potato, exactly as it was done in Roman times. The reward is a ragù simmered for over twelve hours with seven different cuts of meat, ladled into terracotta pans and finished under a wood-fired grill with melting mozzarella. It tastes like someone's grandmother has been cooking all day — because, in a real sense, she has.