It's Fall and root vegetable season is upon us. Sweet potatoes are a highlight in many dishes during this time. Turning sweet potatoes into delicate pillows of pasta is a fun and extremely satisfying way to showcase this tasty in season vegetable for your upcoming Fall occasions or Holidays.

Ingredients

Sweet Potato Gnocchi Dough

• 2 lbs. of Sweet Potatoes
• 2- 3 cups of 00 Tipo Flour
• 1 large egg at room temperature beaten
• 1/4 cup of freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1 teaspoon of kosher salt

Recipe ingredients

• 4 tablespoons of unsalted Butter
• 4 cloves of Garlic sliced thin
• 1 leek white part only sliced thin
• 8 to 10 Sage leaves
• 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
• 2 Broccoli browns cut into small florets and blanched
• 1/4 cup of heavy cream at room temperature
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese at room temperature plus more for garnish
• Fresh basil leaves for garnish

Directions

To create the Pasta

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. While the oven heats up, poke the sweet potatoes with a fork a couple times all around. Place on a Pro-Release baking sheet with rack and cook for about 1 hour or until the potatoes are mushy and able to be riced or pureed. Do not let the potatoes cool if you are not ready to use. Keep them in the oven at the lowest setting to keep warm until ready to make the dough.
2. On a working surface, peel and rice the potatoes. If you do not have a ricer, you can use an All-Clad Immersion Blender to blend the potatoes until smooth in a large All-Clad Mixing Bowl. Note if using an Immersion Blender, do not overwork the potatoes.
3. When the potatoes are ready on the working surface, cut the potatoes with a bench scraper to help cool them down.
4. When the potatoes have cooled, add the egg, salt, and parmesan cheese. Mix to fully combine with your scraper cutting it in.
5. At this time you will begin to incorporate the flour. 1/2 cup at a time, dust the potatoes with the flour. Using the bench scraper cut the flour into the potato mixture working and kneading the dough as little as possible.
6. Continue to cut the flour into the dough 1/2 cup at a time until the dough holds together, is less tacky to work with, and becomes a smooth mixture. This recipe gives a range for the amount of flour used as it is dependent on the environment you are working in. If the air is dryer, you would be using less flour, if the air contains more moisture you will need more. Dough is a living creature, the more moisture in the air the more flour will be needed.
7. Once your dough is complete, roll into logs and cut the pieces into your desired size. We are creating gnocchi that are about 3/4 inch wide.
8. Have a prepared Pro-Release baking sheet readily dusted with flour. Place the prepared gnocchi on the sheet until ready to boil .
9. Fill the to blend the potatoes until smooth in a Large D5 Stainless Steel 8 Quart Stock Pot 3/4 with water and heat over high heat to boil. When the water has boiled, salt your water to taste like the sea.
10. After the water has fully boiled, drop the pasta into the pot and let it cook until they float to the top, roughly 2 minutes or so. You can taste one to check its fully cooked.
11. While you bring the stock pot to a boil, begin creating the brown butter sauce for the pasta.
12. Heat the butter with 1 tablespoon of neutral oil over medium low heat in your D5 Stainless Steel 3 Quart Sauté Pan. When melted and bubbling add the leeks and garlic. Sauté for 3- 5 minutes or until the garlic is very fragrant and the leeks are translucent.
13. Add the sage leaves and let continue to cook for another 1 to 2 minutes or until very fragrant. Crack about 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper into the butter mixture and keep over low heat.
14. When the gnocchi are boiling in the pot, turn the heat back up in the sauté pan to medium. The butter mixture will begin to turn darker, bubble, and brown. When the gnocchi are cooked, reserve roughly 1/2 cup of the pasta water and strain the pot. Place the gnocchi into the butter sauce and let cook over medium heat for 30 seconds without moving at all. Swirl the pan to incorporate them into the sauce. Add the broccoli and toss to combine. Turn the heat to low and add about a 1/4 cup of the pasta water and cream to the pan while swirling to create a homogeneous sauce.
15. When thickened, turn off the heat, add the parmesan cheese to the pan and flip the pasta to fully combine.
16. Serve immediately garnished with fresh basil and grated parmesan cheese.

Pro Tip

The reason for using a bench scraper to cut the flour as opposed to kneading the dough is that we are trying to keep the gluten content as low as possible. If you work the dough more, the more gluten will become present . This will make the finished product much more dense. Gnocchi is a delicate dough where the finished product should have a texture of light fluffy pillows. Keeping the gluten content as low as possible will keep the integrity of this texture.

RECIPE BY

All-Clad Resident Chef Derek Finocchiaro

All-Clad’s Resident Chef Derek has been working with flavors and fragrance for his entire career. Finding a path from perfumery to food, Derek competed on numerous amateur cooking shows which led him to the All-Clad Test kitchen. Here he excels in creating new recipes, blogs, video demos, and food photography for our consumers.