We know the idea of making pasta from scratch can be intimating, but luckily this Homemade 3-Ingredient Sweet Potato Gnocchi recipe is perfect for culinary aficionados no matter what your kitchen experience is.
If there is one thing that I took away from cooking school in Tuscany, it’s that you don’t need a ton of ingredients for a meal to be packed with flavor and keep family and friends coming back for more. The key to a great meal, in my opinion, is a handful of fresh ingredients and a table full of the people you love. My Homemade 3-Ingredient Sweet Potato Gnocchi recipe has been made countless times to delight family, friends, new neighbors, and everyone in between. The best part is that once the pillowy potato pockets are made, you can dress them up in whatever way you want to meet the palates at your table.
I used a macadamia nut pesto for these photos, but it’s equally good with brown butter and sage, a creamy vodka sauce, or something spicy like arrabbiata – the options are truly endless!
Homemade 3-Ingredient Sweet Potato Gnocchi Recipe
You’ll notice two things that might seem peculiar about my gnocchi in these photos. For starters, sweet potatoes in Hawaii are white! While I don’t know the reasoning behind this, I will say that they taste just as delicious as the traditional orange variety. It’s also a great time to mention that regular potatoes make this Homemade Sweet Potato Gnocchi recipe just as tasty.
You’ll also note that my homemade gnocchi in these photos are smooth and haven’t been shaped with a fork or rigagnocchi, the Italian word for line, like you often see at restaurants or pre-packaged at stores. That’s simply my preference when serving this dish with pesto. If I were serving with a more traditional sauce, I would have added the ridges to help the sauce cling to the gnocchi more easily.
Ingredients
- 2-3 large sweet potatoes
- 2 eggs
- 3 cups flour
Instructions
- Cut each potato in half, so that all potatoes fit snugly in a large pot.
- Fill the pot with water and boil on the stove until potatoes can be poked the whole way through with a fork.
- Drain the potatoes and place them on a cutting board.
- Gently, peel back the skin of the potatoes and discard.
- With your potato ricer placed on the finest setting, push all the potatoes through, allowing the riced potato bits to fall into a large bowl.
- When all the potatoes have been riced, create a well shape with the potatoes on smooth, flat, floured surface (use about 1/4 flour to do this).
- Once you have created your well, crack two eggs into the center.
- Add in two cups of flour on top.
- Using a fork, slowly mix together the "walls" of the potato well into the egg and flour mixture.
- When the mixture begins to take shape, use your hands to knead gently, adding in an addition 1/2 cup flour.
- When the mixture starts to firm up and becomes slightly elastic, stop kneading.
- Divide dough into 8 smaller balls.
- Use the remaining 1/4 cup flour to lightly flour your surface again.
- Take each of the 8 balls and roll into a long line using your hands.
- Cut 1-inch squares from the long lines to form individual gnocchi.
- To cook, bring a medium pot of well-salted water to a boil.
- When water boils, drop in fresh gnocchi.
- As soon as gnocchi float, remove them from the water immediately. It will be about 1-2 minutes.
- Serve with your sauce of choice.
Notes
Home Chef Tip: It is very important that you remove the gnocchi from the water as soon as they float to the top. Leaving them in the water will disintegrate the potato pillows, leaving you with mush.
I often find myself making this Sweet Potato Gnocchi recipe on Sunday after a fun-filled weekend because it just makes me feel good to make it. It’s definitely a meal that requires a little bit of love to make it turn out just right, so there’s something really special about sharing it.
This recipe yields enough gnocchi to reasonably feed a crowd of about five adults. The serving size of gnocchi is considerably smaller than normal pasta dishes simply because the potato base fills you up pretty quickly.
We hope you love this 3-Ingredient Sweet Potato Gnocchi recipe from SoFabFood Contributor, Kait from CommuniKait, as much as we do. If you love this recipe, be sure to check out our Dinner section for more deliciously comforting meals to satisfy your hunger on busy weekdays. For daily recipe inspiration, subscribe to our newsletter, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Pinterest. Enjoy!
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