Sweet Potato Gnocchi
I never mean to brag but I have to admit I am pretty proud of myself and would like to flex that as someone who doesn't like gnocchi - these sweet potato crusted gnocchi that are pan fried in butter and served in a wine sauce is everything I needed this fall.
I think gnocchi’s get a bad rap and I think one of the qualms around them is for having a weird texture and overall lack flavor but just like me, these gnocchi in the right environment - transform - and to give them that little boost. All you need is to coat them in a bit of all purpose flour and cook them till crispy in some butter along with shallots, garlic, sage & white wine. If you are wondering where all the sauce is, trust me as a * sauce gurly * myself these gnocchi’s don't need to be swimming in sauce because each bite is the perfect balance of flavor, texture and sweet potato gnocchi fall goodness. If you don't believe me you are just going to have to make this recipe to find out ;)
Sweet Potato Gnocchi
* Serves 2 * Ingredients - For the dough
250 g - sweet potato ( for me this ended up being 1 sweet potato )
1/2 tbsp - olive oil
3/4 tsp - salt
50 g - all purpose flour
Ingredients - Sauce
2 tbsp - grapeseed oil
1/4 cup - sliced shallots
4 cloves of garlic sliced
1 tbsp - chopped fresh sage
1/4 cup - white wine
2 tbsp - vegan butter
Ingredients - Gnocchi breading
1/4 cup - panko
2 tbsp - all purpose flour
1 tbsp - nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp - smoked paprika
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp - chopped parsley
Tools you will need
bench scraper
gnocchi wooden board or fork
Baking sheet pan
Tin foil
Large glass bowl
Pasta strainer
Zester
Instructions
Step 1 - Gather all ingredients & bake potato
There is nothing worse than going to make something and realizing you don’t have the stuff !
After thats all sorted out, preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and stab your potato with a fork in a couple places around the potato to allow it to steam evenly. Cover it in some tin foil and bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until done.
You could boil the potato however that will make the potato and dough more watery and you may have to add in some more flour to compensate.
Step 2 - Peel and cool the potato
In a large glass bowl peel the potato and leave the remaining potato guts in the bowl to cool down. Once cooled, pour in the olive oil and season with salt before mashing with a fork. Once mashed well, add in the 50 grams of all purpose flour and continue mashing until a sort of dough is formed and then work it with your hands. Once a cohesive ball is formed, set it to the side for about 200 minutes to firm up a bit and rest. While the dough is resting you can work on slicing the shallots, and garlic and then set that to the side for later.
Step 3 - Roll out your gnocchi
Once the dough is done resting, I like to cut the ball into 4 making them into 4 easier to work with sized pieces. Lightly flour your counter top or work space and roll out one of the dough balls as you would if you were rolling a log shape. For this part I think checking out my video will be helpful which ill attach down below.
As you are rolling this log it will get longer, use both hands back and forth in steady movements. If the log gets too long or its weirdly shaped, you can start again by smooshing the log back into a ball. This step does take a bit of practice to get it right as its all about hand feel.
Once you have a nice cohesive “chain” or rope looking thing of gnocchi dough. Using a bench scraper cut the chain into little numbs. To do this in a uniform way, I like to cut the rope in half and then in half again and so on until I have reached the desired little nubs of dough.
Once all the dough has been rolled out into little logs or chains and have been cut into all the nubs. I recommend putting them on a sheet tray and doing a sort of par freeze on them for about 10 - 15 minutes. This will make the next step a bit easier.
Step 4 - Shape thr gnocchi’s with a fork or board
I have some folks skip this step entirely and cut the gnocchi’s from a bag into the boiling water and you could I suppose totally go about doing it that way as this step is purely about aesthtics.
I have a cute little wooden gnocchi board for making cute shapes. It technically has 4 different patterns but in reality only 1 of the 4 really seem to make a cute impressionable pattern. With each little nub of dough, using my thumb I give a little push on the board and it creates a nice little gnocchi with a cool pattern. I will say this step does take some practice as it is all in the hand feel. But don’t let that discourage you as it can be fun if you don’t let yourself get too frustrated in the process.
Once they have all been shaped out, I pop the tray with gnocchi’s back in the freezer for another 10 - 15 minutes while I get the boiling water going along with starting a simple little sauce.
Step 5 - Cook & sauce the gnocchi’s
Because this is fresh pasta, the gnocchi’s only need maybe 3 minutes of cook time in the boiling water before straining. You will know they are done as they will float to the top when they are ready to be drained. As always I like to reserve a cup or so of pasta water to use later in the sauce.
Once they have been drained, add them to a bowl that has the measured out flour, panko, parsley and spices. Give them a good toss and shake off the excess before pan frying them. To pan fry them you are going to want to warm up a medium sized saute pan with some vegan butter and add in the gnocchi’s. Let them cook until crispy and develop a nice golden caramelization.
For the sauce, I start by warming a separate sauce pan and some oil before browning some shallots and garlic well and deglazing with white wine. Once the alcohol has been cooked out and reduced by half I add in a nob of cold vegan butter and on low heat with a wooden spoon I stir in the vegan butter before plopping in the gnocchi’s themselves. Allow the gnocchi’s to get smothered and covered in the caramelized goodness, to do this I like to give them a little flip in the pan so everything can mingle around. Lastly I like to give one last little sprinkling of chopped parsley.
Step 6 - Finish
To finish, you must do a little zest of lemon zest as it really just takes the cake along with any vegan parmesan cheese if you have any - if you can believe it I didn't have any ! So sadly I went ahead without and despite that sad news they were really good if I do say so myself. I like to add a touch of flakey salt and now all that’s left is to enjoy right away.
If you don’t want to cook all the gnocchi’s you can keep them in the freezer for up to 2 months.
