By 1917, certain foods were in short supply, especially meat, wheat for bread, butter and sugar. Here is a recipe that appeared in the Bromley & District Times newspaper in January 1917.
I liked the elegant suggestions about serving the Gnocchi alla Romana.
Definitely for the middle-class housewife who maybe has lost her live-in cook!
Gnocchi alla Romana
3/4 pint Water
3/4 pint Milk
1/2 pound Semolina
Butter
Grated cheese
Salt.
- Boil the semolina in the milk-and-water, with salt to taste for fifteen or twenty minutes, stirring well occasionally to prevent lumps from forming.
- Pour out on to a marble slab, or onto a large flat baking dish, and when somewhat cooled cut into squares, circles, or ovals, with a glass cutter
- Place the little cakes of semolina (one overlapping the other so as not to leave spaces) in one more well-buttered baking dishes
- Sprinkle well with grated cheese, and bake till a delicious brown in fairly hot oven.
Serve hot.
Sufficient for five or six persons.
The dish used for baking must be a sightly one, as it has to appear on the table; copper or earthenware chafing dishes are the best, placed with a serviette under, on a large plate or dish.
NB
2 pints = 1.1 litres
0.75 pints = 0.4 litres
2 oz (ounces) = 57 grams
Many people were still cooking over a fire in 1917
