Homemade Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Making sweet potato gnocchi at home is easier than you think. Unlike their regular potato counterparts, these homemade sweet potato gnocchi do not involve any potato boiling (and tedious peeling) whatsoever. When sweet potatoes boil, they get really watery. And that means we would need more flour to create a proper dough. The more flour we use, the more we risk ending up with dense and gummy gnocchi. This recipe uses this as an excuse – just use your microwave to cook the sweet potato – and gives us gnocchi that are healthy, light and fluffy. Mix the softened sweet potato with flour, salt – and fresh ricotta cheese for extra creaminess. Feel free to double – or triple – the recipe and make more gnocchi ahead. This way, you can freeze them in batches, so you can have them anytime you want a fabulous meal in no time. It’s that easy. Who knew?
INGREDIENTS
1 medium/large sweet potato – about 500 grams
1 cup pizza flour (typo 00) – about 130 grams
2-3 tbsp fresh ricotta cheese
1/3 cup semolina flour
1/2 tsp salt
INSTRUCTIONS
Step 1
First, pierce the sweet potato a few times with a fork and microwave it on high heat for about 5 minutes on each side, until soft. After that, let it cool down, but not completely – if I am in a hurry, I use kitchen tongs to handle it.
Step 2
The warmer the potato, the less flour it requires – and we need warm potatoes for the fluffiest gnocchi possible. Remove the skin from the sweet potato and purée it. Then, add the salt, pizza flour and ricotta cheese in the mashed sweet potato and mix everything together.
Step 3
At this point, dust a working surface with semolina flour. Knead the dough gently – gradually incorporating semolina flour – until it feels smooth. Be careful not to over-knead the dough or it will become sticky.
Step 4
Cut the dough in 4 equal pieces and roll each piece to form a log, then cut each log into smaller – about 2 cm thick – pieces. Each log yields about 12 pieces. Now, you can leave the pieces as they are, but I like rolling each piece onto the back of a fork to form the typical gnocchi ridges.
Step 5
Bring a pot of water to a boil, salt heavily and cook the gnocchi in the boiling water until they float to the surface – this takes about 3 minutes. Serve the homemade sweet potato gnocchi with your favorite sauce and enjoy!
Homemade Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Materials
- 1 sweet potato medium/large
- 1 cup pizza flour typo 00
- 2-3 tbsp ricotta cheese fresh
- 1/3 cup semolina flour for dusting
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Pierce the sweet potato a few times with a fork and microwave it on high heat for about 5' on each side. Let cool, but not completely.
- Remove the skin from the sweet potato and purée it. Then, add the salt, pizza flour and ricotta cheese and mix everything together.
- Knead the dough gently on a dusted surface– gradually incorporating semolina flour – until smooth. Be careful not to over-knead, or the dough will become sticky.
- Cut the dough in 4 equal pieces and roll each piece to form a log. Cut each log into smaller pieces – about 2 cm thick. You can leave them as they are, or roll each piece onto the back of a fork, to form the typical gnocchi ridges.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil, salt heavily, add the gnocchi and cook until they float to the surface – this takes about 3 minutes. Serve them with your favorite sauce and enjoy!
