last night i had a crazy idea.
i decided i would make gnocchi on a weeknight.
i know sooo crazy.
okay, i guess not so crazy but i definitely thought that it would take too long and we would be eating dinner at 10:00 p.m. by the time i was done cooking.
well you know the rebellious side in me decided to go for it and hooray, i was able to make sweet potato gnocchi with spinach cream sauce on a thursday night. plus we ate dinner at 7:30 p.m. not bad at all, especially considering that i went to the gym right after work too. so all in all it only took about 45 minutes to an hour. not bad at all. but i would say it unless you happen to have peeled, cooked, and mashed sweet potato already on hand, i would suggest using canned pumpkin instead of sweet potatoes because it would definitely take longer if you had to cook and potatoes and all that jazz.
so start with making the sweet potato gnocchi. i used the same recipe and cooking technique as the sweet potato with brown butter and sage i made a little while ago.
while you’re pan frying the gnocchi, fry up some bacon in a separate pan. you know, bacon makes everything better!
this spinach and garlic cream sauce comes together very quickly. i used frozen spinach but if you have some fresh on hand you could definitely use that instead.
then just put it all together. easy peasy!
and there you have it homemade gnocchi on a weeknight. totally doable and totally delicious. rich, flavorful gnocchi plus a light spinach and garlic cream sauce plus crunchy bacon – you can’t go wrong.
Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Spinach Cream Sauce
adapted from Steamy Kitchen, Ceramic Canvas, and A Good Appetite
Ingredients
Sweet Potato Gnocchi
- 1/2 cup skim milk ricotta
- 1/2 cup sweet potato (peeled, steamed, and mashed or pureed)
- 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest (use a microplane grater)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt (or 1/2 tsp table salt)
- 1 cup all purpose flour, sifted plus more for dusting
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Spinach Cream Sauce
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup water or milk
- 1/2 c grated Parmesan
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 package frozen spinach, thawed and drained (or 1 1/2 cups chopped fresh spinach)
- 4 slices bacon, cooked and roughly chopped
Directions
- Combine ricotta, sweet potato, parmesan cheese, yolk, zest and salt in large bowl. Mix well.
- Sprinkle half of the flour on the mixture, gently turn with spatula a few times to incorporate.
- Dump mixture on clean, lightly floured countertop or you can still do this in the bowl. Sprinkle remaining flour on top of the mixture. Gently knead with your fingertips, just bringing together the mixture until flour is incorporated through. This only should take a minute or two. Any longer and you will be over-kneading.
- Dust a clean, dry surface with a generous sprinkling of flour. Divide dough into 4 parts. Take one part and roll into a long, 1″ diameter log. Cut gnocchi into 1″ pieces.
- Heat a large frying pan or saute pan with just 1 tablespoon of the butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. When hot, add a few gnocchi – enough to cover surface but not touch each other. Fry on medium heat for 1-2 minutes, turn and fry for another 1-2 minutes. Remove gnocchi, place on large baking sheet to put into oven to keep warm. Repeat with rest of gnocchi.
- When all gnocchi is finished, discard butter/oil in pan and clean pan with paper towel.
- Heat pan on medium heat and melt the butter over medium heat. Add the garlic & sauté for about 2 minutes. Stir in the cream, Parmesan, water or milk and salt and pepper. Add the spinach and cook until heated through (if using fresh spinach, cook until wilted).
- Serve over the sweet potato gnocchi with the bacon crumbles sprinkled on top.
Printer Friendly Recipe: Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Spinach Cream Sauce
miki's kitchen 