Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Sage

As I mentioned yesterday, I have been working hard at tackling my 30 by 30 List but I strangely haven't completed any of the cooking challenges!  I decided that it was time to remedy this and decided to work on #27 - Make Gnocchi for the First Time.  Since I've never made gnocchi before, I reached out to my friends via Twitter for suggestions on some good gnocchi recipes.  The response was overwhelming and with so many delicious options, I couldn't decide.  I let Bret do the picking (since he would also be eating the gnocchi too) and we decided to go with this Epicurious recipe (from Bon Appetit - December 2005) for Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Sage.

As far as recipes go, this recipe was incredibly straightforward and I followed the ingredients exactly with just one substitution - dark brown sugar for golden brown sugar.  I also cooked the gnocchi in the sauce a little differently in the end but only because I had a large Dutch oven.  I recommend printing out the recipe if you're planning on making this at home. 

To start, I lined a large baking sheet with parchment paper.  I rinsed, patted dry and pierced two garnet yams (with a combined weight of two pounds) on a plate and allowed them to microwave at ten minutes total (five minutes per side).  I have to admit that I did this pretty anxiously since I rarely cook in the microwave and I had fears of sweet potatoes exploding everywhere.  Luckily, nothing like that happened.  When the sweet potatoes were done cooking, I sliced them open and allowed them to cool.

I scraped the sweet potato flesh into a medium sized bowl and Bret very nicely mashed the sweet potatoes for me.  The recipe called for transferring three cups of the mashed sweet potato to a large bowl.  My two sweet potatoes made almost exactly three cups so I just used it all.  I added twelve ounces of drained ricotta cheese to the sweet potatoes and mixed it together by hand.

I then added one cup of Parmesan cheese, two packed tablespoons of dark brown sugar, two teaspoons of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg to the sweet potato and ricotta mixture and again mixed by hand.  At a 1/2 cup at a time, I added about two and a half cups of all-purpose flour to the wet gnocchi dough until it became soft.  Towards the end, I really started mixing the dough together by hand.

I divided the dough into six equal pieces and Bret and I got to work on making the gnocchi.  Taking one piece of dough at a time, we rolled the dough on a floured board with our palms until it made a 20-inch long rope (about 1 inch in diameter).  Each rope was cut into twenty pieces.  And each piece was rolled over the tine of a fork to get that gnocchi indentation.  All of the gnocchi pieces were put on the parchment lined baking paper to keep from sticking.

Bret's gnocchi are on the left; my gnocchi are on the right.

I hate to admit this but Bret was way better at making gnocchi than I was.  Mine just weren't uniform in size but to be honest, I didn't really care that much as I kept calling it "rustic".  When the gnocchi was done, I set the tray aside at room temperature and put a large pot of water to boil with two tablespoons of salt.  While I waited for the water to boil, I chopped up six tablespoons of sage for the sauce and set it aside.

I put in twenty pieces of gnocchi at a time into the boiling water and allowed it to cook for about five minutes - until they began to float and were tender. 

I did some "taste testing" - you know, just to make sure they wore cooked through - and the gnocchi were little fluffy pillows of heaven.  And maybe I taste tested several times but you just can't be too sure!

When the gnocchi was done, I transferred it to another clean baking sheet (which I had lightly sprayed with cooking spray to keep from sticking) and allowed them to cool.  I did six batches and by the time the last batch was done, the water was definitely cloudy and I would have had to change the water if I was making any more gnocchi!

I then began my sauce.  I melted two sticks of unsalted butter in my Dutch oven.  Once the butter started to brown, I added the chopped sage.  I then turned off the heat and seasoned the sauce with both salt and pepper.  I then added the gnocchi into the Dutch oven.  Since the Dutch oven was so big, I could fit all of the gnocchi in and then I turned the stove back onto a medium-low to get the gnocchi heated through.  In the end, I had a LOT of brown butter and sage sauce and I could definitely cut back on the butter the next time I make this.

Bret and I ate the gnocchi in small shallow bowls with some fresh grated Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. 

The sweet potato gnocchi were so light and fluffy, which contrasted nicely with the deeply flavorful and decadent brown butter sauce.  This recipe made for a LOT of gnocchi, so this also made for some great leftovers throughout the long weekend.

Have you ever made gnocchi or any kind of pasta before?  If so, please share your favorite recipes!