Here's my second entry into ATOM (A Taste of the Mediterranean). Every month the panel selects a country and dish as a basis for variation. This month's country is Italy and the dish is gnocchi. (As I was writing this post, I realized that I missed the entry date by a day - ah well, their loss = our gain.)I've made traditional potato gnocchi many times and recenlty have really become a convert to pan-fried gnocchi. Instead of boiling the gnocchi, they are panfried and either sauced in the traditional manner (with a ragu, for instance) or served in or as a salad.
I'm on my own tonight so I thought I'd try this technique with sweet potato gnocchi instead (Beppo isn't a huge fan of sweets). I'd say the results were an unqualified success. The gnocchi fried up into fluffy little bites and I ate them up, dipped in spicy ketchup. This posting at Cookthink was an inspiration for my recipe.
Aside from roasting off the sweet potaotes, which I did a day ahead when the oven was on for something else, this recipe actually came together pretty quickly: about 20 minutes from idea to skillet. I didn't boil these gnocchi, so I can not vouch for their ability to hold together in boiling water.
Pan-Fried Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Serves 4-6
- 2 large sweet potatoes, baked until tender
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 1.5 - 2 cups flour
Put the potatoes through a ricer or grater. Stir the eggs, salt and pepper into the potatoes. Add in half the flour and stir it in with a rubber spatula. Keep adding flour (press it in with the spatula) until you have a soft dough. It should hold together and not feel too sticky.Roll the dough into thick ropes (about 3/4" inch around) and then cut it into inch-long pieces with a bench knife or table knife. Roll each piece (adding flour if things get sticky) down the tines of a fork (or on a butter paddle, like I do).
After you've finished cutting and rolling gnocchi, you can fry them up. In a hot non-stick or cast iron skillet, saute the gnocchi over medium-high heat until browned well on both sides.I ate mine dipping in spicy ketchup, but I think these wouldbe great with sage and brown butter, or tossed with crispy pancetta, asparagus and onion.
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10 comments:
You make it sound so easy! I'll definitely have to give it a try - yum
It was pretty easy - frankly a lot easier than standard potato gnocchi because there's not so much starch given off by the sweets. The dough should be like play dough, but a little softer.
Let me know how yours turn out!
i've been meaning to make these since I got a ricer for xmas :)
A ricer is really the way to go. What's nice about baking the sweet potatoes ahead is that they're not flaming hot while you're ricing them. That said, if you bake them just for this recipe, do let them cool down before you rice them - easier on your fingers, and you'll need less flour.
We made Sweet Potato Gnocchi (cooked the traditional way) with a brown butter and sage sauce for Thanksgiving this past year. They were a huge hit.
That sounds delicious NP36 - it's the next way I'm going to try these.
Thanks for the idea. I had some gnocchi for dinner and thought it was just "meh", so I googled different ways to cook it up and found you! I'll definitely attempt a homemade version, I'm sure it's much better than the long shelf-life stuff I got from Walmart. :/
Thanks Audrey. The shelf-stable version has its place - I use it occasionally - but I find it's more of a texture than a flavor. I usually sauce it pretty heavy . The other way I like to eat the shelf-stable is pan-fried: it gets crispy and toasted and sort of fluffy - much better.
You saved me! I have been making sweet potato gnocchi for awhile. I am making them for a dinner party tonight and realized I loaned out my stock pot to my neighbor, so boiling them wouldn't be easy. I can't wait to make these. I even bought some butter from Parma to help with the frying!
Thanks Emmy! It's amazing that I've been off my blog for so long - glad I can still help even while silent.
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