Sweet potato gnocchi recipe is one of the easiest Italian dishes to make because it requires no equipment and only requires 5 ingredients. I was always in search of a good gnocchi recipe that is like little pillows that melt in the mouth. And finally, I have succeeded. If that’s what your looking for read more to find out how I make these little fluffy babies
The first time I made gnocchi was at Ritz which has a Michelin star restaurant in Paris, we served gnocchi as a side dish. Rolling gnocchi used to be one of the everyday chores that I had to do for 6 months, so I can say I have become a pro at making gnocchi. Now I have always made gnocchi with potato and not with sweet potato. It’s not very often that I take my brother’s recipes but I can proudly say this is one of my brother’s recipes 
he will be thrilled to know his recipe got a feature on my blog
He is not a chef but when he wants to make a dish he will make it at least 100 times before he presents it to guests and this is one of the recipes that he has done more than 100 times to nail it. and when he served it to me, my Michelin star recipe had to be thrown out of the window because it was that good. Also, my Michelin star recipe was a bit complicated to make hahahahha.
Is it better to boil or bake potatoes for gnocchi?
Always Bake the sweet potato, never boil them, if a recipe is calling for it to be boiled, I would question the recipe. The reason why I am saying that is because when you boil sweet potatoes, you absorb water into sweet potato if you really want to test it, weigh sweet potato before being boiled and weigh it after being boiled. what happens when the moisture is absorbed is you need to add more flour, to form gnocchi which then becomes too hard and dense. you want the gnocchi to be soft and melting in your mouth and the trick for that is using less flour. when you bake the sweet potatoes, you dry out and extract all the water out of the potato thus need less amount of flour.
Best sauce for sweet potato gnocchi?
Sweet potato gnocchi will be so flavoursome. you don’t need to dd a very strong flavoured sauce. I have done a simple burnt butter sauce but the below sauces work well
1. Tomato sauce (Passata sauce)
2. Creamy mushrooms and chorizo sauce
3. Pesto sauce
4 Burnt butter sauce
How to cook sweet potato gnocchi?
Now once the gnocchi is formed, it needs to be first blanched in hot boiling water. you will know the sweet potato gnocchi is cooked when they start floating on the surface, then take them out of the water. Now I am pan-frying them as well, this is because the pan-frying process will give a good mouthfeel and add an extra layer of flavour.
How to make Gnocchi from scratch?
It is a 5 step process, but I can assure you the effort is well worth it. Firstly the sweet potato needs to be baked, flesh needs to be mashed, then it needs to be formed as a dough and shaped, then boiled. Finally, if needed pan-fried and tossed in the sauce.
How to Shape Gnocchi without special equipment?
See. my step by step guide below on how to roll gnocchi
Why does sweet potato gnocchi become too dense?
if you add too much flour then it be dense
Why does sweet potato gnocchi dissolve in water when blanched?
That is because there is less amount of flour added and the dough is not holding well
Why is there chunks of sweet potatoes, when I bite into them?
Ok so normally it’s always better to use a potato ricer to mash the potatoes, but if you don’t have one, don’t worry, you can use a whisk, grater or a hand masher to mash. Now the only problem is when you don’t have a potato ricer, it is very important to almost overcook the sweet potato, then it doesn’t have large chunks and can be easily mashed. if you don’t mash the potatoes properly then there will be big chunks in the dough which is not very pleasant to eat.
How long to bake the sweet potatoes?
The time needed for the sweet potato in the oven will be different for each one because the sweet potatoes can be small, medium or large and depending on the size it will have different cook times, so when baking the sweet potatoes, after one hour, just keep checking if they are fully cooked, insert a small knife, if the knife goes in without any effort then it is fully cooked
How much flour to add for gnocchi?
Quantity of flour needed in the recipe will differ from person to person, batch to batch, here is why? Now in the baking process, every sweet potato will evaporate water differently. so the amount of flour needed will be different. so I have given a guide as to how much of flour needs to be added for the recipe. You will need to make an educated guess and add flour as needed. It is not like bread dough, it will be slightly sticky. that’s the texture you want, but you need to be able to shape into small gnocchi. what I do is, I add less amount flour to the dough itself and then when shaping if it’s too sticky then I add flour to my work surface to make it easy to form.
You can also check my dinner recipes
Watch how to make sweet potato gnocchi
Step by step recipe how to make sweet potato gnocchi
Equipment
- Oven
- Pots and Pans
Ingredients
Gnocchi
- 250 g Sweet potatoes ( 3 medium sweet potato) The Pulp of Sweet potato after cooked
- ½ tsp. Salt Table salt
- ¼ tsp Pepper
- 1/2 Egg yolk
- 130-150g All-purpose flour
Brown butter sauce
- 60 g Butter Unsalted
- 2 tbsp Lemon juice squeezed
- Parmesan Grated (for serving)
Instructions
Gnocchi dough from scratch
- Preheat oven to 200C
- Place the unpeeled sweet potatoes on a tray and make holes on the sweet potato using a sharp knife
- Bake the potatoes in the oven for 60-75 minutes until they are cooked through
- Once cooked take it out of the oven, before it cools down, peel the skin and scoop out the flesh of the sweet potatoes
- Using a grater grate the sweet potato or mash it using a masher
- Add flour, egg, salt and pepper into the sweet potato and lightly knead the dough on a work surface dusted with flour
- Roll it out to a long log shape and cut into 6 equal portions
- Taking one portion at a time roll it to a long log and cut into smaller pieces
- Using a fork press the dough pieces on the fork and using your thumb roll it back to form small gnocchis
How to cook gnocchi
- Boil a pot of water on high heat, Once the water is boiling add the gnocchi in the boiling water
- When the gnocchis emerge to the surface strain it using a slotted spoon and leave aside
Tossing the Gnocchi in sauce
- Preheat a pan with 2 tbsp of oil on medium heat, once the pan is hot, add the blanched gnocchi into then pan and pan-fry until it forms a small crust or it has a golden brown colour ( This step is optional but highly recommended)
- Heat a pan with butter and cook for 2-3 minutes until it is dissolved and turns into a brown butter (Please note it is important to keep an eye on the butter because it can quickly turn into a burnt butter)
- Once it has turned brown add the lemon juice, season with salt and pepper
- Add the cooked gnocchi into the sauce and cook it further for 1minute
- Grate parmesan and serve it immediately