One summer, some friends and I visited Rivergaro, a resort town on the edge of the Trebbia River in Emilia-Romagna. We stayed in an agriturismo on a hill overlooking the town, and enjoyed sumptuous outdoor meals at sunset, the table groaning with local produce and charcuterie, washed down with buckets of Gutturnio, a fizzy red wine served cold.

The salumi include cured sausages seasoned with fennel and garlic, fatty and funky guanciale, and, most uniquely, culatello — a lean, prosciutto-like ham. The meats proved to be the most memorable part of the meal, accompanied by piping hot, pillow-shaped fritters called gnocco fritto.

As you may know, the East Village has a restaurant named Gnocco, founded over 20 years ago by Gian Luca Giovanetti and Pier Luigi Palazzo on the bucolic northern edge of Tompkins Square Park, at 337 E. 10th Street, near Avenue B. The menu features many Northern Italian specialties, and the place has long been known for its excellent small pizzas.

The namesake appetizer is truly a draw: Two or three diners can share an order of gnocco, priced at $20 for a large portion. It appears on a cast-iron platter, with salumi including the peppery neck-meat ham called capocollo (or “cappy ham” in the Brooklyn Italian parlance); a fennel salami that tastes like one you’d bought on the Autostrade; and, a lean and delicious round ham that might have been culatello, though the waiter couldn’t tell me exactly what it was.

All were sliced thin for wrapping around a warm fritter, which enhances the aroma. With a glass of Lambrusco ($15), this is one of the most heavenly preludes to an Italian meal the city has to offer.

A friend and I sat at a table just inside the open front of the restaurant looking across as kids played basketball across the street. That front room is part of a labyrinthine layout that includes a couple of darker dining areas, all decorated with Italian bric-a-brac, and a glorious back yard with tables planted among trees and other foliage.

Our meal continued with some hits and misses. An octopus carpaccio ($20) was perfection, the thin-sliced cephalopod dabbed with fruity olive oil and partly concealed under a tangle of shaved fennel; while a pullet (baby chicken, $27) that came unexpectedly with French fries was a damn good deal, but perhaps a little oversauced. We also tried a meaty Bolognese doted with peas poured over fresh fettucine. The only real disappointment of the evening was a veal tonnato in which the tuna sauce was on the money, but the sliced veal underneath was as dry as cardboard.

Our dessert of a fruit-covered ricotta tart was fabulous, every bit as good as one might get from the nearby Veniero’s.

As summer approaches, Gnocco remains a great place for an evening meal, whether in the backyard or at a sidewalk table. And the dish not to be missed is the gnocco fritto and charcuterie, which makes you feel as if you might be sitting on a hillside in Italy, fields in the distance.