Remember my post on that Cada-rita created by Shop Babe. Try it you might like it.
In the blog I told you I would try to cajole Pam and see if I could get her sweet potato gnocchi recipe. Well she is sharing it with us and here is in her own words the back story on the gnocchi birth. The story is just as much fun as eating the gnocchi.
Per Pam “Here’s the evolution of gnocchi (a.k.a. how to NOT make wallpaper paste when trying to make and cook homemade gnocchi):
My daughter has always had an interest and an eye for photography. In her last year of high school, she was in a magnet program for photography, so I took her to New York for a fun photo shoot and visit with my dear friend. Sadly, the 1 day we spent in the city was a little rainy, so her shots were not as good as she wanted, but we still had some fun adventures. One such adventure was to go to Jekyll and Hyde’s, a quirky little restaurant/show in Brooklyn. While the show was cute and the trick of finding the bathroom was fun (spoiler alert: you have to find just the right book to pull in the library/hallway to open the door), the thing that really got our attention was the pumpkin gnocchi in a sage brown-butter sauce. Until then, I had only had store-bought potato gnocchi, so you can probably imagine our surprise and delight at the delicious difference.
Once we got home, I found a gnocchi recipe and made the dough as I had done with pasta dough in the past (first mistake = way too tough dough). Then, I cooked it like I did with the store-bought gnocchi (second mistake = it disintegrated into something similar to wallpaper paste). Undaunted, I tried and failed a couple more times then gave up. One day, I was watching Food Network and saw this man making potato gnocchi. He pressed his cooked potatoes through a screen then gently mixed it with flour barely, lovingly forming it into a loose roll of dough. He cut the dough into little nuggets and pan-fried them (who knew!?). They looked like the fluffiest Tater Tots ever! I had to try it (hence the reason for asking for a potato ricer for Christmas that year – yes, my family does wonder about me some times).
The next spring, during morel mushroom season, Tom was out of town and the culinary mad scientist (we should make that a degree – CMS) in me came out. I knew I had to do something with the morels, one of the tastiest of all spring ephemera. While wandering the grocery store trying to put a dish together I thought about what would go with the earthy savoriness of the mushrooms and decided on sweet potatoes and rosemary. Using a light hand with the potato mashing/ricing and making the dough log is the key to a sweet-savory cloud that’s crispy on the outside and pillow soft on the inside. Enjoy!
Sweet potato gnocchi for 1 (actually I only ate half of it as an appetizer and saved the other half in plastic wrap):
1 large sweet potato
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup finely shredded Manchego cheese (can probably use Parmesan, but I had some of this handy)
1 tsp. finely chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Butter and olive oil
Cook the sweet potato any way you like until cooked but not soggy. I baked mine for bout 30 minutes at 450.
Mash the potato or use a ricer (the ricer keeps it very light and fluffy; should have about 1 cup)
Mix the flour, cheese, rosemary, salt and pepper together and spread on a clean counter or cutting board. Using 2 scrapers or spatulas, mix/chop the sweet potato into the flour mixture until well blended (using the scrapers keeps you from kneading the dough). Gently, form the dough into a 1inch thick log, and cut the log into 1/2-3/4 inch chunks. Heat 1 Tbls of butter and 1 Tbls of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Gentle add the gnocchi and let brown. Toss or gentle stir to brown all sides. Serve with butter or sauce (sautéed morels in butter and Half and half was perfect.” Pam and I would love your feedback if you make this recipe!
Once upon a Wine 