japanese sweet potato gnocchi
ingredients:
1000 grams japanese sweet potatoes
1 egg
5 cloves garlic
1 ½ teaspoons sea salt for gnocchi dough
2 teaspoons sea salt for water
1 teaspoon nutmeg
600 grams flour
I love gnocchi. But what I love even more are japanese sweet potatoes so I immediately knew I had to make a variation with them as my base. To me, this adds depth of flavor but keeps the gnocchi extremely versatile so that you can add whatever sauce or toppings your heart desires. The combination that I just can’t seem to quit is pairing it with my basil, mint, parmesan and almond pesto. Another thing I love about this recipe is that it’s so easy to freeze your gnocchi and then when you need to make dinner in a pinch, it takes 5 minutes to prepare. You’ve been warned! You might want this for every meal. Report back on any winning combos. Let’s get to it.
For the dough:
Prepare a medium to large pot with water (enough to fully cover the potatoes), 2 teaspoons sea salt and 5 cloves of peeled garlic. Place japanese sweet potatoes in the water and bring to a consistent rolling boil.
Continue to let cook until you can easily place a knife or fruit pick into the center and have the potato slip off. Once it can easily slip off, remove potatoes and garlic onto a cutting board or dry surface. Let cool.
Once cooled, peel potatoes and place in a medium size bowl with your cloves of garlic. Mash with a potato masher or a fork.
Once mashed, add your egg, salt, nutmeg and start with adding 300g of your flour.
Mix. Continually add in the remaining flour. The dough will continue to get more tough and you’ll want to switch to kneading it with your hands.
Once all of your flour is mixed and your dough feels less sticky, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight or at least for 3 hours to set and cool (much easier to roll out when the dough is cold).
Prep to roll your dough out with a large sheet of parchment paper and additional flour. The dough for this japanese sweet potato gnocchi is much stickier and wet than other pasta doughs so be prepared to coat with more flour!
Begin to pull out small sections of dough and roll into a long snake-like form. From here you can either just cut it into pieces or cut and then roll over a fork or gnocchi board if you want texture on your individual gnocchi pieces.
Place individual gnocchi pieces on a sheet pan and layer with parchment paper (so the gnocchi don't stick together). Once all rolled out, place in the freezer.
Once frozen, you can store it in a container or bag and keep in the freezer until ready to use.
For cooking:
Bring a pot of water to a light boil with sea salt.
Add in the desired amount of gnocchi, stay close because the cooking time is fast!
When you first add in the gnocchi, it will fall to the bottom of the pan. To know when it is done is when all of your gnocchi float to the top of the water.
Once gnocchi are floating at the top, drain water (save just a bit so you can add to your desired sauce).
Enjoy!!
