Five Places to Go When You're Hungry and Only a Big Cheesy Bowl of Gnocchi Will Do

There’s gnocchi and then there’s gnocchi cooked by a star chef with over 13 years of experience kneading, rolling and boiling the stuff.

At Surry Hills’ relatively new all-day Italian diner Bartolo, Chef Teofilo Nobrega — who previously spent over a decade in the kitchen at Potts Point’s Fratelli Paradiso — is mixing up big, hearty bowls of gnocchi seven days a week.

While the menu changes seasonally, the house-made doughy pillows are currently being served in a salty, tomatoey sauce of prawns, cuttlefish, gurnard (fish) and bisque.

We suggest you pair a bowl with one of the restaurant’s many bottles of Italian red — or one of the hot, warming cocktails.

Image: Kitti Gould

One of Bondi’s more recent additions, Peppe’s serves up well-executed Italian cuisine and local wine — that’s 100 percent vegan. Coming in at just 40 square metres, this tiny restaurant is a prime spot for a relaxing lunch or dinner after a hard day at work (or on the beach).

Once you’ve pulled up a chair at one of the two communal tables, you’ll find the chalkboard menu. While short, it’s filled with salads, fun sides and, the pièce de résistance, handmade pasta.

There’s a special focus on gnocchi and, though changing regularly, you can expect dishes like gnocchi bianchi — sauced in cauliflower puree and three-hour porcini stock reduction and topped with oyster mushrooms, sage and toasted breadcrumbs — gnocchi pomodoro and a pesto and green pea version.

Image: Kitti Gould

On a short lunch break or looking for quick carby food on the run? La Favola is the place to go. It’s serving up handmade Italian pasta in Newtown without the wait. What’s the secret? A menu of just six sauces and seven pastas — including light and fluffy gnocchi — which you can mix and match to make your favourite dish.

Choose gnocchi and pair it with carbonara, four-cheese sauce or the seafood-heavy dal mare. Then, if you have the time, you can add on starters (such as doughy focaccia), sides (such as rocket, parmesan and balsamic salad) or dessert (we suggest the tiramisu).

Plus, La Favola offers cooking classes where you can learn to make your own tasty potato balls.

Image: Trent van der Jagt

For classic Italian eats at any time of the day, Barbetta is one of your best bets. This Paddington hotspot boasts a daytime cafe, smallgoods store and workshop, with an interior that fuses a bright and contemporary design with 1950s nostalgia.

When it comes to food, there are two standout gnocchi dishes on the menu — served with either truffled mushroom ragu or a parmesan fondue — which you can follow up with house-made cannoli, cakes, or gelato.

Or, if you’re up for donning an apron and getting your hands dirty, Barbetta hosts pasta making classes on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings. Besides getting to take home your handiwork, you’ll get to tuck into some antipasto, dinner or lunch and BYO wine.

With a name like The Italian, you’ll know exactly what you’re getting from this restaurant in Willougby. Filled with comfy booths, hanging greenery, earthy colours and shelves housing lots of wine, this bright spot will have you feeling right at home as soon as you walk in.

While being a pizzeria first and foremost, The Italian goes through a lot of house-made gnocchi — a whole sixty kilos of the stuff every week, in fact. And it makes it a little differently to most.

Here, the doughy pillows are served ‘alla Sorrentina’, which means the gnocchi is thrown into a big terracotta dish, topped with lots of tomato, basil and mozzarella and then cooked in the woodfired oven until gooey, hot and bubbly. Yep, our stomachs are rumbling too.

Image: Jesso Jeco