Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Recently here in the kitchen we experienced what I'm (still) calling the Sweet Potato Glut. No we didn't grow our own, but yes, I may have gone a little wild at the market. I had every intention of making these oven fries, to accompany some slow cooker 'pulled pork' sandwiches but never found the gumption, once my guests had arrived. So there I stood facing five rather large sweet potatoes, totally unwilling to let them go to waste. I roasted two of them last weekend, and made muffins with one (I actually made another batch of these this past weekend) and I found a way to stretch the other into dinner. Gnocchi had been something I had been interested in for a long time, and with the help of the man (its alot of work for only one set of hands!) we made a really pleasant dinner, that was both filling and reasonably healthy, (whole wheat flour and sweet potatoes keep me thinking that a bowl of potatoes, dressed in butter and a little thyme make a fairly healthy dinner...as opposed to a bowl of traditional gnocchi anyway) Gnocchi itself isn't very hard, really and if you maintain an organized level of chaos, its not too bad on ones kitchen either.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Adapted from Double Delicious, by Jessica Seinfeld


1 3/4 cups ricotta cheese
1/2 cup sweet potato puree
1 large egg, and 1 egg white
1/4 cup grated Romano cheese
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup of all purpose flour

In a mixing bowl combine ricotta cheese, potato puree, eggs,cheese, baking powder, and salt. In a smaller mixing bowl, combine both flours, and mix into wet mix all at the same time. Mix until the flour is incorporated and the color of the dough is uniform (no streaky orange)
Separate the dough into eight sections. Flour your work surface (I used more whole wheat flour) and roll the dough into foot long, inch high logs. Cut the dough with a fork into 1 inch by 1 inch morsels, lightly rolling the fork over one side of the pieces, creating a grooved side. Continue until you have no more dough.

At this point I seperated half of the gnocchi, froze them on a parchment lined baking sheet and later, transfered them to a freezer bag.


Fill a large pot with water, salt it generously and bring it up to a boil. Add the gnocchi, stirring very gently and cook until it just floats sim them off the top with a small mesh strainer, continuing to stir gingerly until all the gnocchi have come up to the surface and been skimmed out. We served these dressed in a little butter and sprinkled with thyme. Perfect comfort food.