sweet potato gnocchi

“So, Lauren, what did you do on this glorious Saturday?”

“Oh you know, i decided to torture myself by spending 4 hours making gnocchi from scratch…”

Yea. Cause i always think it’s a good idea, & then a quarter of the way through i wonder what the fuck i was thinking.

You see, that’s my secret. When ever i make recipes that are an almighty pain in the arse, or just super time consuming… or both… i make them in bulk. You know, enough for 4 or 5 meals minimum.

This works two fold. One, it saves me a whole bunch of time the next time i have a craving for said recipe, because let’s face it… the biggest time suck of all is the prep. & two… well, enough time has passed since the previous time that I’ve made it, that i genuinely have forgotten how much i loath myself an hour into the process, but by that point, I’m already to far gone (& too stubborn) to quit. Essentially locking myself into the task.

See? There is method to my madness.

You’re surprised aren’t you. I’m not just crazy.

Gnocchi is certainly up in the top 5 of recipes I’m loathed to make. Gluten-free gnocchi is just a nightmare. it sticks to everything. it takes 3 times longer than regular gnocchi because you’re constantly getting glued to the dough & having to stop, re-wash your hands & all your utensils, & then start the fuck over again.

is it worth it? i guess that depends on how much you really love freshly made gnocchi to be honest. & if you don’t have a dietary restriction, just find the closest Italian restaurant with fresh made gnocchi on the menu, & pay them to do it for you. if you’re gluten-free & you love it…. Well then you’re screwed & you have to follow the recipe below. Good luck! (You’ll need it).

By the way... you may notice that these gnocchi are a little tougher than the regular gluten-containing ones. Tough shit. You have to add in a whole bunch more flour just to make the dough even remotely workable, & as a result, these little puffy clouds are a little less puffy than they are supposed to be. I mean, you can go ahead & reduce the flour by half (or technically 3/4), but then you'll be left with a paste that you'll have to put into a piping bag & pipe out each individual gnocchi.... which you'll then have to freeze so that you can handle them. & then when you try to boil them? They'll fall apart & you'll be left with orange, gooey water.

How do I know all this?! Because I fucking did it. So there. Just make the gnocchi & shut up.

ingredients (makes eight portions):

400g - potato

400g - sweet potato

2 - garlic cloves

2 - eggs

100g - ricotta

1/4 tsp - salt

799g - gluten-free all purpose white flour

(it’s actually eight hundred grams, but i poured coffee on my keyboard & now the eight key no longer works. Along with a few others)

Directions:

1. wash your potatoes, wrap them up in tinfoil, & bake them at 150C until they are nice & soft. Go ahead & go that with the garlic too. What the hell, it can all go into the oven at the same time. Remove them from the oven & let them cool enough that you can handle them.

2. Peel your potatoes, cut them into large chunks, & pass them through a ricer & into a large bowl. Trust me, don’t try & mash them by hand as you’ll end up with chunks in your gnocchi.

3. Add everything to the potatoes except the flour, & give it all a good mix. Then add your flour. Mix again. Go on, you know the drill.

4. Your dough should be really thick by now. it will look & feel like it’s still sticky (because it is), but with careful handling, & a flour dusted work surface, you should be able to roll it into long, skinny logs. Do this by transferring a large glob of dough (about the size of a tennis ball), onto your work surface, & just start rolling… GENTLY!

5. Cut your logs into little pieces about 1 to 1.5cm in length. if you’re feeling really adventurous (or have way too much time on your hands & a hard-on for repetition), you can attempt to roll each little piece over the back of a fork to give it those nifty little grooves. They even make a special little tool just for jazzing up your gnocchi like that… but you have to really love gnocchi to go & buy that. Otherwise you’re just wasting precious drawer space.

6. Once everything is rolled & ready, you can divide it all up into portions, & stick what you don’t need right now into the freezer for a later date. For your dinner… or your fancy lunch, you’re going to want to put a pot of water on the stove to boil. Make it a nice large pot really full of water so that the water doesn’t get thick & gluey.

7. Once the water is boiling, gently dump all the gnocchi you want to eat right now into it, & let it cook for three minutes before removing it with a large slotted spoon & transferring it onto some paper towel to sop up the excess liquid.

Eight. Dress with your favourite pasta sauce, & serve hot!

Tips:

1. if you’re feeling extra daring, heat up a cast iron skillet on medium high heat, drizzle in some olive oil, toss in plenty of thinly sliced fresh garlic, & give your gnocchi a good sautéing. i like them a little crisp round the edges.

2. Also… when it comes to the potatoes, you should know that you need 400g of actual potato. So get a potato that’s more than 400g, because once you bake it & remove the skin, it will weigh a lot less.

3. & if you’re trying to figure out how much gnocchi you need per person, that depends on whether your gnocchi is the main dish & you’re serving up a big plate of it with some sauce, or it’s accompanying something else, like a nice juicy pork-chop. if that’s the case you’ll need 150g to 200g for the latter, & 300g to 400g for the former. You’ll have to eye it up & be realistic about how much you can eat.

By the way...

If you're interested in the type of stuff I keep stocked in my kitchen or the equipment that I use regularly... here's a pretty comprehensive list.

Tools/ Equipment/ Machinery/ Ingredients:

Machinery:

Electric Scale - Etekcity - http://amzn.to/2xkKpQk

Tools:

Silicone Spatula - Zyliss - http://amzn.to/2y3Srkw

Chef's Knife 8" - Miyabi - http://amzn.to/2fUtyRK

Pots & Pans: Cast Iron Pot 5.5 Quart - La Cocotte Staub - http://amzn.to/2fUqxAG

Cast Iron Grill Skillet 10.5" - Lodge - http://amzn.to/2z2GPwi

Ingredients:

White Flour GF - Dove's Farm - http://amzn.to/2z1b5I1​

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