Sweet potato gnocchi

[Duer 157099]

I finally decided to make gnocchi. Now that I think of it, I don't think I've ever even eaten gnocchi, or at least don't remember doing so. That's odd. Well anyway, I had a couple of sweet potatoes hanging around and needed to do something with them, so cut them in half, brushed with evoo, into oven. Then put them in fridge until I had time to finish the job.

Peeled the skins off the cold taters and mashed em up good. Grated some fresh ginger into the mash, and a pinch of salt and a pinch of nutmeg. Mixed it up with some flour and an egg and kneaded until it wasn't sticky any more. Rolled out a long thin rope by hand and then sliced it into small pieces. Did the fork thing with some of them until I realized it was time consuming and not necessary for my purposes (the sauce would be thick enough).

Made a quick sauce: fresh garlic in evoo, sauteed; add some butter, then flour, to make a roux; add some cream/milk to thin it out; add some grated parm and a hit of S&P and dash of nutmeg.

It was outstanding. My new favorite easy in-a-pinch thing to make.

I still have half the dough left and will try rolling some sliced turkey into the gnocchi roll before cutting into pieces, and then will add toasted walnuts and cranberries to the cream sauce.

[knitter4democracy]

1. Nummy! The yams are coming in now, too.

At least, they are at my market. Good use for them. :)

[yellerpup]

2. Now, that's creative.

And inspiring. Thanks for utting that out this evening.

[Callalily]

3. Yum! I just love

making and eating gnocchi. I'll have to try my next batch with sweet potatoes. Thanks for the suggestion!

Here's a great recipe using swiss chard. Quite labor intense, but worth the effort.

I've already made them ahead of time and popped in the freezer, as I do with potato gnocchi!

Anna Klinger's Malfatti (gnocchi gnudi)

1 lb ricotta cheese (use good quality
kosher salt
4 bunches swiss chard (about 4 pounds)
8 ounces butter
1/4 cup flour, plus more for shaping
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
4 large egg yolks
1 large egg
fresh ground black pepper
24 fresh sage leaves
parmesan cheese, for serving

1. Drain the ricotta in a sieve lined with cheesecloth overnight in the refrigerator.
2. Measure out 1 1/4 cups.
3. Bring a large pot of water to boil.
4. Trim the chard, removing all the stems and large ridges.
5. Add half to boiling water and cook until soft, about 3 minutes.
6. Fish out and plunge into a bowl of ice water.
7. Repeat.
8. Squeeze out chard with your hands.
9. On a dish towel, spread the chard in a circle the size of a pie.
10. Roll up the towel and have someone help you twist the end to squeeze out as much moisture as possible.
11. (This step is very important... wet chard makes for sodden malfatti) Pulse in a food processor until fine.
12. Squeeze out in a dish towel once more, until very dry.
13. You will have about one cup.
14. Melt half the butter.
15. Mix chard and ricotta.
16. Add melted butter, 1/4 cup flour, 1 heaping teaspoon salt and nutmeg and mix again.
17. Drop in egg yolks and egg, season with pepper and stir again.
18. Sprinkle a cutting board with flour.
19. Shape into 1-ounce balls, about 1 Tablespoon each, dropping them on the cutting board.
20. You should have 25-30 balls.
21. Put a teaspoon of flour into a narrow wineglass.
22. Drop in a ball and swirl until it forms an oval.
23. Repeat (you may need to change the glass).
24. You may freeze them at this point.
25. Do not thaw: take directly from freezer and place into boiling water.
26. Boil for about 10 minutes.
27. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
28. Drop in the malfatti and cook until they float, about 8 minutes.
29. Put remaining butter into a small saute pan and heat until bubbling, shaking the pan.
30. When it smells nutty, add sage and cook for 30 seconds.
31. Season with salt.
32. Drain malfatti and place on plates.
33. Spoon on the butter and sage.
34. Grate fresh Parmesan over each plate.

[wryter2000]

4. Interesting

I've been thinking of using sweet potato puree to make pasta (see my thread about ajvar pasta :)). I couldn't figure out what to use as topping except butter and maybe walnuts. Did sweet potato really taste good with garlic?