If there’s anything that annoys me when I’m looking for a recipe, it’s wading through commentary to get to the ingredients. So, here’s the recipe, and I’ll go into further detail below!
- about 2 lbs of purple sweet potatoes
- 1 egg
- about 1.5 cups flour, as needed
- nutmeg, fresh!
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees
- Roast sweet potatoes for about an hour (it will depend on the size and shape of the root/s) and cook until fork tender. You’re shooting for about 1.5 lbs of cooked sweet potato
- Let cool slightly, then cut in half to release steam
- Scoop out cooked sweet potato flesh and mash
- Add one beaten egg and mix together, then add flour to make a workable dough that is no longer sticky
- Divide mass of dough into workable sections, and roll each section into a long coil. Cut the coil into even-sized pieces
- Texturize the little dumplings with a gnocchi roller or the tines of a fork
- Cook gnocchi in boiling, salted water until they float to the top
Now here’s a step by step guide — with pictures.
Let’s start by getting to the root of this recipe. (Hardy-har-har).
Making gnocchi is actually quite similar to making pasta, but gnocchi have something pasta doesn’t: potato. This gives gnocchi their distinctive “pillow-y-ness.”
I’m doing a little twist on traditional gnocchi, which are made with true potatoes, by instead using my homegrown purple sweet potatoes.
I should mention that my potatoes are not “cured” and because I didn’t allow the roots to undergo the curing process, they were starchy and not very sweet at all — which is actually what I was going for! Because of the starchiness, they behaved almost identically to real potatoes. If you’re using sweet potatoes from the store, bear in mind that because they’ve been through the curing process, they will be sweet.
Anyway, on to the recipe.
This particular sweet potato was absolutely MASSIVE. Raw, it weighed in at nearly two pounds. There’s a 6 inch bench scraper for scale.
I preheated my oven to 425, pricked some holes in the skin of my washed sweet potato and just put in on the rack of my oven to cook.
That’s it.
You don’t need no foil, or oil, or nothin’
Depending on the size and shape of the root, you may need to roast it for a longer or shorter amount of time. I’ll give you a ball park estimate of about an hour before you start checking it.
One of my favorite tools in the kitchen is this little cake tester. My old Chef came back from working in an NYC Michelin star restaurant and introduced this to me.
We use it like a probe; stick it into the thickest part of your food for a second or two and then pull it out. Metal conducts electricity so it’ll pick up the heat of your food. You can then touch a sensitive part of your skin like your hands or just under your lips to get an idea of the temp. Faster and easier than a thermometer. (Obviously make sure it’s clean before sticking it into another piece of food)
In the case of veggies, you can use it to evaluate whether or not they are soft. if it goes through easily, and the probe is hot, then you’re done with roasting! (Veggies get cooked to much higher temps than proteins so be careful! the probe will be very hot)
I mean, you could also use a fork for this, I guessssss. But it’s just not as cool.
The potato, she is done, comrade .
I would reccomend letting it sit for a little while on the counter, but impatience got to me so cut it in half after only a couple minutes. I wanted to see how purple it was.
It didn’t disappoint.
After you cut it in half, let the steam come out of it and let it cool to room temp.
Scoop the flesh into a bowl and weigh it. you should have about a pound and a half of cooked sweet potato. You don’t have to get crazy-anal-retentive about this; as long as you’re in the ballpark you’ll be okay.
Mash up with a potato masher (although, if you have one, a ricer would be better!) season with some salt, freshly ground white pepper, and freshly grated nutmeg.
whisk up your egg, mix it in with the purple stuff
Then add the flour until it’s no longer sticky and is workable. You’ll end up with dough like this:
I divided into smaller, more workable pieces
Now, you’re going to make a long snake
and then cut the little dumplings.
At this point, if you’ve got a gnocchi roller go ahead and use it! I, sadly, was relegated to using a fork, like a plebeian. I’ve also seen people get creative, using cheese graters, and other things to add texture to their gnocchi.
To cook them, bring a pot of water with a handfull of salt to a boil. You don’t need to put oil, just salt. Make sure you have ample water or you’ll end up with a gummy mess.
Drop in your gnocchi and they’ll sink to the bottom
and cook them until they float!
At this point you can serve them with your favorite hearty sauce or even just butter and parmigiana.
I’m a little bit extra, (if you haven’t already noticed) so I added a few more components! This post is getting a bit long though, so I’ll make that a separate post.
Think I’ll link that right about…. here.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this recipe! You can certainly use store bought sweet potatoes to make the gnocchi, orange or purple. Just remember that because store bought sweeties are always cured, the gnocchi will have a little bit of sweetness!
