Gnocco fritto

The gnocco fritto or crescentina ( Italian: [kreʃʃenˈtiːna]) is an Italian bread from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, prepared using flour, water and lard as primary ingredients. Cracklings are sometimes used in its preparation as well. In Emilia-Romagna, it is typically sliced into diamond shapes and then fried, and may be accompanied with cheese and salumi. When it is fried, the bread puffs up, and it may include yeast or baking soda to leaven it. Versions prepared with milk are softer than those prepared with water. It may be served either as an appetizer or as a main dish. Despite the name by which in Italy it is often referred to as a kind of gnocchi, it is technically not. The name crescentina is derived from the Italian verb crescere, meaning 'to grow', referring to it puffing up during the cooking. A version of the dish in the city of Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, is prepared with the bread sliced into round shapes, which are then fried. Pieces of prosciutto (thinly sliced dry-cured ham) may be incorporated into the dough. In Pavullo nel Frignano, a town and comune (municipality) in the province of Modena, crescentina modenese is prepared with lard and yeast and cooked over a piastrata (a sort of grill plate), rather than fried.

Source: Wikipedia