Sweet Potato Gnocchi

I think this is one of my FAVORITE recipes when it comes to a healthy pasta version.  I love real gnocchi from great restaurants where its prepared from scratch, that day.  Otherwise, forget it.  I love fresh and real ingredients in my food and this is one way to have your gnocchi and not feel an ounce of guilt!  Well, depends on how much you each but as you will find this recipe is VERY filling and it can technically be a week's worth of servings if you don't have a hubby that finishes every leftover in the house!  LOL  For real though, only a few pieces and you are full!  Its that' solid.

Now, be prepared that this recipe takes time and its a bit messy.  I started prepping the night prior and let the gnocchi sit overnight in the fridge on parchment paper because I was too lazy to finish it that night.  So the next morning, I boiled some water and within 10 minutes I had all the pieces laying out to dry.  Easy right?  Well, if you break it up it is but otherwise can take about 1.5- 2 hours total.  Sometimes its best and easier to break it up if you don't have time to do it all one night.  

The first thing you want to do is make sure you have some solid sweet potatoes.  I ended up using two quite large sweet potatoes.  Equivalent should be 2-3 lbs of sweet potatoes.  Or two LARGE sweet potatoes.  Now you can either put these in the micro - which I did for 6 minutes - then was like no I'm just going to bake them in foil and give them time.  So that's what I did.  About an hour on 350.  Remove them and let them cool for a good 20 minutes.  I went to class then came back and they were more than cooled after 2 hours.  Again, do what works best for you but I find segmenting these type of tasks makes life easier. 

What you will need:

• Parchment Paper
• Tin foil
• Large pot to boil water
• Medium Bowl 
• *mixer for sweet potatoes 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Gluten Free Flour  - I used a combo of Almond/Tapioca/Coconut flour which was a perfect mix
• 1 cup tapioca flour - for dusting and parchment paper 
• 2-3 Sweet Potatoes (large or 2-3 lbs)
• 3-4 chopped basil leaves
• 1 tsp Rosemary (I used fresh and chopped approx 1/2 stalk)
• 1 tbsp Oil - I used Grapeseed oil but Olive Oil is great as well
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2 tsp Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute (or favorite seasoning here)
• 1 Organic Egg
• 1 tsp baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees for baking sweet potatoes.
2. Wash sweet potatoes and stick with fork several times.  wrap in foil and bake in oven for approx 60 minutes
3. In medium bowl combine flours, salt, baking soda and spices.  Set aside.  Lightly dust a clean work surface with some extra tapioca flour.
4. Remove the sweet potatoes from the oven, let cool.  Once cooled, peel the skin off and put into mixer to blend and mash or use a hand held masher.  Once potatoes are mashed, add to flour mixture, then add the egg and knead into a smooth ball.  You will want to eyeball this here to use your direction to add more flour if needed.  should look like a solid smooth ball or bread dough.
5. Divide the dough into strips.  You should get approx 8-10 portions and roll each portion out into a 3/4 inch thick rope.  slice rope into 1-inch segments and use the top of the for to score each piece.  Repeat with the remaining dough.  Place gnocchi on plate, cover and set in fridge to chill.  Approx 15-20 min or in my case it was overnight.  
6. Once the gnocchi has been chilled, bring a large pot of water to a boil with a splash of oil and pinch of salt.  Cook the gnocchi in batches; they will be done when they float to the top so use a large enough pan so you can cook a few at a time.  It takes about 2 minutes to it float to the top.  Remove from water, place on parchment paper to dry.  drizzle with pesto or oil and serve warm.  I garnished with basil, rosemary and a mini heirloom tomato.

Enjoy!