Ciao, I'm Danielle.
I'm a dual Italian–American, at home in both Boston's North End and Italy. I learned to make pasta studying culinary arts and wine in Florence — but the real teaching happened at kitchen tables: adopted nonnas who taught me by feel, not by recipe, and trattoria cooks who let me stand at their elbow across twenty years and every corner of the country.
That love started at home. My heart belongs to Sardegna and Firenze — where my ancestors hail from; my nonna's maiden name was Fiorentino. It's where I get my hands and my heart for this. My dad grew up in Campania — that's where I get my taste for gnocchi alla Sorrentina. And when we finish class, the espresso is poured from my own nonna's moka pot — the same one she used every Sunday, when the whole family gathered in her kitchen.
La Terrazza is what happens when I bring all of that home — to my own rooftop and organic garden, the tomatoes and herbs going straight into the sauce, the harbor and the skyline in front of us. It's not a restaurant. It's my table, for six at a time.
Pull up a chair. Mangiamo!
My nonna (right) and my dad — the little one in front of her.
Gnocchi
Ridi, ridi! Che la mamma ha fatto gli gnocchi!Smile, smile! Mom made gnocchi! — an Italian proverb
When a dish has its own proverb, you know it's something special. To Italians, gnocchi are exactly that.
Every region keeps its own gnocchi day, and its own way of making them — Thursday in Rome, Saturday in Liguria, Sunday in Campania, where they're baked with tomato and mozzarella, alla Sorrentina, the way we finish class. That's the part I love most about Italian food: the history lives right inside it.
And gnocchi go all the way back. The food historian Oretta Zanini De Vita calls the humble gnocco "the ancestor of almost all the Italian pastas" — the shape that cavatelli, orecchiette, and strozzapreti all descend from. So when you roll gnocchi with me, you're making the oldest one at the table.
Reserve your spot at the table
Come make pasta by hand at a cooking class on a private terrace overlooking the harbor and city skyline of Boston. A few hours to slow down, savor the summer, and eat delicious food you learn to make by hand.
Ages 12 and up