I’ve published this recipe on my first blog in 2012 and since its complete new design one year ago, I needed to reshoot the recipe, to think about it and the added ingredients all over again (the original one was only about basil and parmesan), therefore the gnocchi recipe was sleeping in my archives… That was without taking into consideration my current addiction to sweet potato so I opened the archive box and started working again on this super easy recipe. The only difficult part is to balance the quantity of flour added to the potato: if you add too much flour, the gnocchi will be too dense and will not float easily whereas if you add to little flour, it will dissolve in the boiling water. I’ve picked sage leaves and seasonal raddichio salad but you can adapt this recipe to every season : for example with eggplants and tomatoes in summer etc Sweet potatoes will add a slight sweet note to the dish (more than the regular potatoes) but the contrast with the other savoury ingredients is quite interesting. You will need a fork to ‘mark’ the gnocchi. Gnocchi are usually made with a traditional wooden tool with carved lines and those lines are very important for the pasta fluffiness in the water. You also have gnocchi with a moon shape made by the pressure of the fingers in the center of the gnocchi but stripes made by a fork will do just fine. You can also prepare them in advance and freeze some for those evenings when you so need not to cook anything but still crave for a good dinner.Ingredients:
- 2 medium size sweet potatoes
- gluten-free flour (I’ve chosen chestnut flour and the gnocchi came out sweet which ended up super well with the contrast of the parmigiano, but you can go for another flour). Start with 3 cups and add more if needed
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- some pepper
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 large handful sage leaves
- 2 large handful raddichio salad
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp butter
- some grated parmigiano
- salt and pepper
Recipe:
- Cook and peel the sweet potatoes
- Let them cool in your fridge for at least 2 hours and ideally overnight so they loose a lot of their water
- Once this is done, throw away the water and mash the potatoes into a purée without any chunks nor bits
- Add the egg yolk and the flour progressively. You must reach the consistency of a dough not too sticky to play with (it should not stick too much to your fingers). Knead the dough for few minutes and make a large ball
- Divide this ball into 4 equal little balls
- On a work surface coated with non-gluten flour, roll the little balls into a long thin cylinder. Cut the cylinder into bits (the actual gnocchi) and print the fork prongs into the pasta (just on one side, easier)
- Throw the gnocchi into a pan of boiling salted water. They will drown first and reach the surface within two to three minutes. This will mean that they are cooked (you can’t imagine my joy when they came back to the surface the first time)
- Drain the gnocchi and brown them with the butter and olive oil for a crunchier finishing. Before doing that, place the sage leaves in the oil and butter and leave few minutes for them to be golden (be careful as they tend to burn easily so do not forget to flip them with a fork). Place on paper towel to remove the possible oil from the leaves
- Serve the gnocchi warm with the sage leaves, the raddichio salad and grated parmigiano as well as salt and pepper to taste