Sweet Potato Gnocchi

By Kathryn Washburn Breighner


What was I thinking to start making these at 5 pm? They are labor intensive but a labor of love. 90 minutes later, I had 3 cookie sheets filled with gnocchi freezing on the back porch and a batch cooking for dinner had been accomplished.

My thinking was to make a huge batch to put in the freezer but oh, my aching back. We even have elevated counters for our heights but still, I was too hunched over the dough.

But I'm done and it was worth it! Homemade gnocchi has been a recent addition to our kitchen. Somewhat like a potato dumpling, these tiny pasta like products are worth the effort. I put in the oven 2 large sweet potatoes and 2 large baking potatoes and baked them at 350 degrees for an hour. Place the potatoes on a cookie sheet so the sweet potatoes don't drip to the bottom of your oven like mine did.

Baking the potatoes brings out the sweetness in the sweet potatoes and a better texture to the regular potatoes than if they were microwaved. Adding sweet potatoes into the gnocchi dough not only turns them a gorgeous orange, but adds a sweetness.

Once the potatoes are done, cut them open to cool and then scoop the cooked potatoes into a food mill or potato ricer. Put this mixture in the bowl of a stand mixer.

To this mixture, add:

2 eggs
salt and pepper
3 T fresh, chopped parsley
2 t minced garlic
4-5 cups flour

Use the dough hook of the stand mixer.  Add the flour in 1/2 c increments. Mix until the dough easily pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn the dough onto a floured board and knead for 2-3 minutes. Cut a piece of dough off and roll between your floured hands into a long roll about 1/2" in diameter. This is a somewhat sticky/soft dough because of the potatoes. Cut the roll into 1/2-3/4" pieces and roll each piece down the back of fork to form indentions. Put the pieces on a baking sheet to dry.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add a couple of handfuls of the gnocchi and cook, stirring, until the gnocchi rise to the top of the pot.  When you add very fresh gnocchi to the water, the gnocchi will still have a bit of moisture to them and you'll think they will just sink. Well, yes, they will immediately sink to the bottom but in a few minutes, they will float to the top.

We made tomato sauce for the gnocchi. I placed the baking sheets filled with fresh gnocchi out on our (frozen) back porch for about an hour and then put the gnocchi into freezer bags and into the freezer.