Gnocchi di sweet patata!
A recipe for my beloved brother who seems to be becoming quite the chef!
Sweet potato is a bulb versatile and easy to cook. It can be the base for sweet and savoury dishes, such as the American sweet potato pie with condensed milk or plain deep fries.
It is a great alternative to the plain and lovely potato because of its complex carbohydrates, which make it more suitable for low carb diets. It is high in vitamin C content and also contains vitamin A, B5, B6 and beta-carotene. In other words it is a winner in terms of health benefits but also taste.
I use it a lot in to make different types mash, salads, breakfast hash and for so many other recipes. Recently I made the best gnocchi in my cooking experience with sweet potato. And I wanted to share it with you. Try it and you might never go back to the original.
Ingredients
Feeds 6-8
1 kg sweet potatoes peeled
450gr all-purpose or whole wheat flour
1 egg
Flour for rolling and dusting gnocchi
Salt to flavour and for boiling water
Optional- a bit of ground nutmeg
Preparation
Making 40min-cooking 3min
Peel and cut the sweet potatoes in large pieces.
Boil the sweet potatoes in salted water for 10 minutes or until they are soft.
Rinse with cold water, leave to drain to get rid of excess water and steam.
Mash with fork or masher.
Make a well in the mash, add 2/3 of the flour, salt and the egg and mix well with a spoon.
If you are adding ground nutmeg add it now.
If the dough looks sticky add the rest of the flour and even more if needed to make the dough firm but soft.
Knead for a few minutes to make a non-sticky dough.
Flour a surface and make four 2cm wide dough tubes.
Cut with a sharp but smooth knife in 3cm long dumplings.
Place on a floured surface to dry a bit.
Bring a large pot of water to boiling point, add gnocchi and cook for maximum 3 minutes.
The gnocchi will float to the surface when it’s ready and at that time you must remove immediately.
Serve with browned butter and melted Roquefort cheese and/or vegetarian ragú carrot sauce.
Lia’s Notes:
- When picking sweet potatoes makes sure they are not bruised.
- I used orange skin and flesh sweet potatoes for this recipe because of the colour they give gnocchi but I think all sweet potatoes would work.
- If your gnocchi dough is sticky before you start the boiling gnocchi they will not hold their shape. Add flour to the dough if it is sticky.
- Do not over boil the gnocchi
- I have not managed to make a good gnocchi without egg but apparently a lot of practice might make it possible.
- For an egg free, vegan version of the gnocchi start with using 300g of flour and only add 75g more if it needs the flour. Try cooking a couple of gnocchi to see if this has worked before adding an egg or scratching your head about what you are going to do with this bloody dough- I have been there!
- You can freeze gnocchi according to many people. I would advise you freeze them flat and once they are frozen move to bags of 1 or 2 portions. I have not tried this so let me know how it goes!
Lia's Kitchen 
April 30, 2014 at 9:22 pm
Yes you can do wheat free with a mix of rice, quinoa or bceawhukt flour and tapioca to make it pliable. I’ve never tried it myself though I have heard of it done with success.I use a pasta machine to roll and cut my dough, though you can roll with a rolling pin or well floured glass bottle. You can then simply hand cut whatever shapes you like with a sharp knife. It is a bit fiddly to hand cut them but you can get creative with it and it would look nice and rustic too.