April 23rd, 2021 was “ñ” Day according to Google Doodle. Many languages accessorize vowels and consonants with the little wavy line to modify the recipient’s sound, but the “ñ” is its own independent letter only in the Spanish alphabet. The tilde is technically called virgulilla. Isn’t that an awesome word? It means a very little thin line.
Ñow that I come to think about it, perhaps I should have chosen this letter as the only tattoo on my body instead of the aleph.
One of my favorite dishes is gnocchi, which in Spanish we call ñoquis. I make them from scratch, following Marcela Hazan’s recipe (Now her son makes them). Although safe if married with pesto, I prefer them with a simple sage garlic butter sauce: A few tablespoons of butter warmed up in a pan, pressed garlic cloves, and a dozen sage leaves pithily frying in the bubbly mixture. It’s not only a fragrant mix, but a colorful one: the translucent, almost vintage yellow of the clarified butter against the grayish green or greenish gray (depending which Josef Albers painting you are looking at) of the sage. Finish it up with a sprinkle of grated pecorino and abundant black pepper. There is a tradition in Argentina that if you have ñoquis on the 29th of the month and place a dollar bill under your plate, you will be showered in luck and prosperity. Pay-day superstition? Too late to switch alphabets? Sí, una eñe en vez del aleph, tal vez.
—New York City, 5/13/2021