Homemade Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Gnocchi is a much easier option to pasta that does not require any special tools. We made ours with sweet potato this time, so it required a little more moisture than a regular Yukon gold or Russet potato gnocchi.

Easy start, peel and boil two large sweet potatoes until you can easily poke the potato with a fork. Drain and finely mash the potato with 1 tbsp of heavy cream (or milk if you don`t have cream) in a large bowl. Let it cool enough that your hands won`t burn. If you have a ricer at home, your life will e a little bit easier but we just used a fork to mash and mix it all.

In a separate bowl, sift 2 cups of flour and 2 teaspoons of salt. Mix.

In another bowl, mix room temperature ¼ cup of cream cheese (it will be too hard if it`s straight out of the fridge), ¼ cup of sour cream, 1 tablespoon of freshly grated parmesan cheese. In yet another bowl, have one egg ready.

Note: You can use ½ Cup of Ricotta instead of a ¼ Cup of Sour Cream and ¼ Cup of Cream Cheese for a lighter Gnocchi.

Now that you have all your ingredients ready, you can start making your gnocchi.

Mix the cheese mixture and the egg into the sweet potatoes until fully combined. Then slowly incorporate the flour until you have a solid-ish dough.

(Sorry for the hand in the photo)

Once the dough has all the flour incorporated, move it onto a clean and floured surface and finish blending everything together. Add more flour as you go until you have a a dough that is no longer sticking to your hands but is still very soft and fairly wet.

Cut the dough into 6 or more pieces and begin to roll them into coils – don`t worry if they break into smaller parts. For better results, roll the dough with flat hands applying very light pressure until it begins to coil. If the coil starts to look flat, twist it slightly and roll again. They do not have to be perfect.

Cut each coil into ½-inch to 1-inch pieces (depending on how big you want your gnocchi and leave them as is or decorate them as you wish. We shaped each gnocchi with our fingers and then lightly pressed a fork on them to make dashes.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Carefully drop half (or 1/3 depending on the size of your pot) of the gnocchi into the pot and lightly stir them so they don`t clump up. Once the gnocchi floats (about 2 minutes), fish them out and put them on a frying pan with your sauce of choice and a dash of the pasta water. Cook it on medium-high heat for about a minute or two until the sauce is thickened and boiling.

Serve with a generous portion of freshly grated parmesan.

We made a basic tomato sauce with fresh herbs and a brown-butter sage.

The Brown-Butter Sage Sauce is super easy to make, simply melt 2 tablespoons of butter on medium heat with minced garlic and chopped sage.

Once the garlic is nicely golden, turn the heat up and watch closely. Once you start seeing the butter coming to a simmer and a few brown bits on the bottom of the pan (about 1-2 minutes) remove from heat and stir until it cools. It should smell incredible.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Servings: 2-4

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

2 Large Sweet Potatoes

1 Tbsp Cream or Milk

¼ Cup Sour Cream

¼ Cup Cream Cheese

1 Tbsp Parmesan Cheese

1 Egg

2+ Cups Flour

2 tsp Salt

Step-by-Step

1.       Boil Peeled Potatoes until tender (test it with a fork). Drain and mash with 1 Tbsp of cream or milk. Let cool slightly until you can touch it.

2.       Sift the flour with salt and mix. Reserve.

3.       Mix room temperature cream cheese, sour cream, egg and Parmesan in a bowl. Incorporate it into the finely mashed potatoes. Add the flour mix slowly into it until you have a malleable dough.

4.       On a floured surface, finish mixing the dough until its homogeneous. The dough should not be sticking to your hands but it should still be fairly wet and soft.

5.       Once the dough is formed, separate it into 6 or more pieces and roll it with your hands to form coils, flouring the surface as you need. Cut the coils into ½-inch to 1-inch pieces and decorate if you wish.

6.       Add the gnocchi to boiling water and stir lightly. Once they float (1-2 minutes), they should be cooked. Add them to your sauce of choice on a frying pan (medium-high heat) and serve with a generous dusting of fresh parmesan.