The Laughably Simple Gnocchi I Should Have Made Sooner

Homemade gnocchi always seemed beyond my reach. It's not the act of making pasta that intimidated me—in fact, I grew up on homemade pasta. My mom used to make it regularly, pulling out her battered red pasta machine and hand-cranking the sheets of dough through its rollers. She'd make wide lasagna noodles from scratch and ribbons of flat spaghetti, which were bright yellow because of the yolks from our hens.

So homemade pasta I can, and do, tackle. But I've always steered clear of gnocchi. In my mind, it seems too complicated to shape and too finicky to cook properly: delicate and fluffy in theory but too often sticky and leaden in practice.

Thus, imagine my surprise when my sister called me recently to tell me otherwise. She's been making sweet potato gnocchi and promised it was both simple and a good candidate to make ahead.

Not only is it both those things, but it also has a leg up on regular gnocchi. The sweet potato adds a beautiful color and robust nutrition, and with this recipe, you need little more than a few vegetables and cheese to round out a solid meal.

If you start, as I do, by microwaving your sweet potato instead of baking it, the time to make gnocchi is minimal. (You can bake the potato if you prefer, but just plan ahead so you have at least an hour of oven time.) Simply prick the potato with a fork, wrap it in a paper towel, and microwave it for 7 minutes.

Scoop out the flesh and combine it with flour, salt, ricotta cheese, and some Parmesan. Use a light hand with mixing so you don't overwork the dough. Shape it into long ropes, slice them into small pieces, and that's it! Homemade gnocchi! It's so easy I almost laughed at myself for being nervous to try for so long.

You can freeze the shaped gnocchi to cook later: this is a very wise move that your future self will appreciate. Or, bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook them for a few minutes until they float to the surface of the pot. Skim them off (a spider strainer works well here) and carefully transfer them to a plate, as they are apt to fall apart if you aren't gentle with them.

I like to make a simple sage brown butter sauce to pair with these, but any sauce will do, from alfredo to marinara. Lately, I opt to blanch a few greens (broccoli rabe usually) and toss that with the sauce and the gnocchi. If you cook the gnocchi quickly with the sauce and greens in a pan over high heat, they'll get slightly browned and crisp on the edges, like a pan-fried dumpling.

I tinkered with this "project" late last spring, so now that it's summer, I'm thinking up ways to apply gnocchi to every sort of fresh produce: corn, eggplant, zucchini, and so on.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

View Recipe

Ingredients

1	large sweet potato (about 1 pound)
1	cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
1/3	cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
1	teaspoon salt
1 1/4	cups all-purpose flour

1	large sweet potato (about 1 pound)
1	cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
1/3	cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for serving

1	teaspoon salt
1 1/4	cups all-purpose flour

What are some food fears you conquered? Let us know in the comments!