A variation of Italian original gnocchi

One of the most typical dishes included in the Italian cuisine are Gnocchi. They are small potatoes dumplings which can come in different flavours and shapes. This particular recipe is made with pumpkin and it is a common dish during the autumn season.

Ingredients for the dough:

• 200 gr potatoes
• 240 gr flour
• 300 gr pumpkin
• 1 Egg
• 10 gr Salt

Ingredients for the sauce:

• 25 gr butter
• Sage

Process:

1. Start by peeling the potatoes and cut them in cubes. Proceed by cooking the potatoes either by putting them in boiling water (20 min) or in the microwave (15min) Image 1.
2. While they are cooking, peel the pumpkin and cut it in small slices. Put them on a baking tray and bake them in the oven at 180° for 15 minutes. Do not add oil or salt Image 2 and 3.
3. When the vegetables are cooked, let them cool down. Afterwards you can mash the potatoes in a bowl or on a wooden surface as in Image 4. Ideally, you should use a potato masher, if you do not have it you can use a fork. In this last case, make sure that the vegetables are cooked very well, almost overcooked. It will be easier to mash them.
4. Now you can proceed by mashing the pumpkin with the same process described in bullet-point 3.
5. Add in the bowl or on the wooden surface the flour, salt and the egg.
6. Now it’s time to create the dough. Start by mixing with a fork all the ingredients. Then use your hands to knead the ingredients until obtaining a non-sticky dough, add flour if necessary. It can take a lot of flour to make the dough non-sticky Image 5.
7. When you achieved the right consistency, take a small piece of the dough and roll it until it becomes a small circular tube Image 6.
8. Then cut it in small rectangular pieces and roll it onto a fork so that the small piece will get some stripes on it. This passage will prevent it to disassemble when cooking.
9. Now you got your first gnocchi ready! When the gnocchi are ready put them on a wooden surface or on a tray. Make sure to sprinkle some flour on it so that they won’t be stuck to the surface Image 7. Continue with this process until you finish all the dough.
10. When you are done rolling the dough, put some water in a pot and let it boil. While the water is reaching boiling temperature, cut a piece of butter and put in a separate pan. Let it melt and add some leaves of sage (the more leaves, the stronger the taste).
11. Once the water is boiling, put your gnocchi inside and let them cook until they appears on the surface. At this point take them out and add them to the pan where you previously let the butter melt. Let them fry for few minutes and then serve them while they are still hot. You can add some parmesan on top if you like. Enjoy your meal!

Variants:

• For rolling the dough it is preferable to use a wood surface. This will prevent the dough to stick on the surface.

Tips:

• Instead of butter and sage, you can use tomato sauce or pesto. The gnocchi will turn out very tasty too!

Gallery

• Image 1 Potatoes ready to be pealed and boiled

• Image 2 Type of pumpkin used

• Image 3 Pumpkin ready to be baked

• Image 4 Mashing potatoes and pumpkin

• Image 5 Kneading the ingredients together

• Image 6 Rolling the dough in circular tubes

• Image 7 Gnocchi ready to be boiled