Sweet Potato-ish Gnocchi

I first attempted gnocchi about a year ago, a first attempt, that ended like most first attempts at gnocchi in utter failure. I want to say a large part of it wasn’t my fault so much as my ignorance. My coworker made us butternut squash gnocchi for lunch frequently, and assured me it was simple. Unquestioningly, I believed her, and set to work.

Now, nearly a year later, inspired by the Outside of the Box Challenge (thanks Rachel!), I attempted it again.

I still had no intention of following a beginner’s recipe, not after Alicia at Vegan Epicurean posted such an easy-sounding Sweet Potato Gnocchi recipe. But this time, I knew some research was in order.

Sure enough, my initial brushing over of Alicia’s “I used to make this all the time…” was nearly fatal. I studied the techniques used by Deb at Smitten Kitchen (here) and Heidi at 101 Cookbooks (here), and set to work.

I used the same basic recipe found on Smitten Kitchen and 101 Cookbooks, but subbed a sweet potato in with my two white potatoes. I had already baked the potatoes per Alicia’s recipe, which left the outside hard (beyond the skin), and my shredder…well, it’s crap, so that idea was quickly sacked.

I did my best to imitate Heidi’s technique with a fork. The dough appeared a little chunky, which I think was due to the texture of the sweet potato, and I used significantly more flour than called for, but not so much as with the butternut squash disaster.

And, it appears to have paid off! While they may not be perfect gnocchi (they certainly don’t look perfect), it was perfectly delicious with some homemade pesto (although I employed my new mini-food processor rather than the make-shift mortar and pestle this time around)!