Sweet Potato Gnocchi

I am warning you...DO NOT attempt to make this on a weeknight after work. Although delish, Hubs and I didn't eat dinner until 9:30pm. However, all the work was worth it and I highly suggest you make these in advance and freeze them. They are perfectly light little pillows of slightly sweet heaven.

This recipe does yield a lot of gnocchi...and really needs your patience in order for it to come together properly. The 'dough' is also very delicate and needs your patience to work with it.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Take 3 Large Sweet Potato's and pierce all over with a fork. Place on a baking sheet and in a 450F oven for at least 1 hour. My oven cooked them in about 1 hour 15 minutes. You want them cooked through and soft.

Once the potato's are done let them cool until you are able to handle them without burning your hands. Slice in half and scoop out all the potato into a large bowl.

Add 1 Tbsp Brown sugar to the potato mixture and mash very well with a potato masher.

In another bowl combine 1 tub of Ricotta (about 2 cups) cheese, 1 Egg, 2 Tsp White Pepper (black is fine) and 1 Tbsp Kosher Salt.

Add the Ricotta Mixture to the potato mixture and start to combine with a spatula. If you try to combine with your hands it will be way too sticky at this point.

Once the mixture is combined you want to start adding your flour. Add 1 cup at a time and combine. In total I added about 5 cups of flour. You want the dough to still be slightly sticky but workable with your hands. Next time I make these I am going to try adding the flour in my mixer with the dough hook instead of by hand.

Cut about a handful of dough off and start gently rolling it into a ball on a lightly floured surface. The key to handling the dough is with very gentle hands. Lightly rolling it in the flour. Start to roll out the dough like a snake until it is about 1 inch thick.

With a knife cut off 1 inch sections. You can be fancy and roll the gnocchi on a fork..but it was 9pm...and I was hungry!!

Roll each gnocchi in some flour to prevent it from sticking and let them sit on a floured baking sheet. You can flash freeze the gnocchi on the baking sheets then transfer them to a freezer bag for another time.

I could have made gnocchi all night with the size of this batch. But I basically just made enough for us to eat that evening and put the rest of the dough in the fridge to make the rest to freeze the next day.
Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil and gently add the gnocchi. These cooked in about 4-6 Minutes (they floated to the top).

There are so many ways to eat the gnocchi...and pictured above is Gnocchi with Braised Turkey.
I will be posting a couple of different ways of eating Gnocchi over the next week (starting with the above recipe)...because trust me...you will have A LOT of gnocchi from this recipe!