This sweet potato gnocchi is served with a quick bolognese sauce. A hearty and deliciously filling fall meal.
I am totally not one of those people wishing summer away as we get to the tail end of the season with thoughts of pumpkin spiced this and cider donuts that, I swear.
But, when Ginger woke me up yesterday morning at 7:15 (about 2 hours too early for a lazy Sunday) to be let out and I stepped onto the porch half awake, I was blasted by that amazing fall-like crispness in the air that you forget about in the muggy months of June-August.
And I’m not gonna lie, I kinda liked it.
At least for a day.
So I spent the early afternoon indulging in this “almost fall” weather by making sweet potato gnocchi and simmering a bolognese sauce on the stove because after today, there will be no more of that fall cooking stuff until October 1.
Winters suck way too much in NY to waste August on sweet potatoes, cinnamon and beef sauces.
According to that line of thought, I probably should’ve saved this post for about 2 months from now but reality is that I had two recipes flop face first this weekend and this was my only saving grace.
I’d say sorry but I’m not really.
If you make it, you’ll see why.
Somewhere within the first year of dating Ulysses we went to this horrific local pasta restaurant for dinner.
Think Olive Garden but multiply the gaudy Italian-American white, green and red décor by about 10 and take away the chain restaurant aspect.
Among the standard parmesans of the chicken, veal and eggplant variety, there was gnocchi.
We silently looked over the menus for a minute or two when Ulys blurted out “what’s GA-NOTCH-EE?”
I looked up, stared at him and said “I’m not sure we can date anymore.”
13 years later, he walks in from the garage, comes into the kitchen, looks at the sheet pan full of these and says “are these GA-NOTCH-EE??!”
Aren’t I lucky?
The best part of making sweet potato gnocchi is the fun little lines.
I decided to play around with video a bit to show you how I do it at home since I don’t have that fancy line roller thingy.
Please ignore my perpetual state of workout clothes, the fact that I never show my face and my amateur editing skills.
It may also be slightly obvious that I’m Italian by the amount of gesturing my hands do in the span of 1 minute and 34 seconds.
At least there’s only one direction to go from here.
Dressing myself properly next time might be the first step.
As if his gnocchi ignorance wasn’t blatant enough by the butchered pronunciation, Ulysses tried to eat one off the pan at this point of the prep.
They’re cute and all, but I do suggest actually cooking them before consumption.
Raw flour is never really a good taste.
I debated for about .5 seconds whether to tell him that as he held it in his hand.
You could definitely stop at this point, boil them off, toss in some butter, olive oil, rosemary and call it a delicious meal but I decided to go all out and make a quick bolognese sauce to boot.
If you’re looking for that kind of preparation, check out my air fryer cauliflower gnocchi. There’s an option to serve with olive oil, garlic and salt that’s so simple and could easily be used here too.
If you think adding cinnamon and nutmeg to ground beef sounds weird, I’m with ya.
But I took a chance and did it anyway to mimic the flavors in the gnocchi and it turned out way better than I ever thought it would.
It’s meaty and hearty with a hint of cinnamon sweetness that pairs so well with the sweet potato gnocchi.
Basically, it’s fall in your mouth.
You can also serve these sweet potato gnocchi with this easy Instant Pot bolognese sauce for a more classic recipe, lamb bolognese for a fun meat variation or, this lentil bolognese for a lighter, vegetarian version.
My cauliflower gnocchi skillet recipe is another great option for a cozy, comforting and hearty meal. It cooks in just 30 minutes and uses frozen pre-made cauliflower gnocchi from Trader Joe’s so it’s a lot less involved too.
We ate this around 3pm and then hiked almost 5 miles until 7pm (after making about 5 wrong turns at different trailheads) and I still wasn’t hungry when we got home.
It’s that filling.
I’ll allow you one “fall” cooking day to make it if you promise to come back to basil, tomatoes and watermelon for the next 4 weeks.
Fight the pumpkin urge!
Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Bolognese
Ingredients
For the Sweet Potato Gnocchi
- 2 large sweet potatoes
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/3 cup grated parmesan
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
For the Bolognese
- 1 lb. ground beef, I use 85% lean
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 small yellow onion, chopped
- 3 small carrots, chopped
- 2 large tomatoes, chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
For the Sweet Potato Gnocchi
- Clean and scrub potatoes well. Poke holes around the outside of each potato using a fork or knife. Wrap loosely in a paper towel and microwave until fork tender. This took me two rounds of the “potato” setting on my microwave.
- Remove potatoes from microwave, set aside and let cool.
- Once cooled, scoop flesh out of skins and transfer to a medium bowl.
- Mash sweet potato until smooth.
- Add remaining ingredients and mix until dough forms. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead into a ball. Add additional flour as needed to get the dough into a workable state so that it’s not too sticky. I added about 2-3 tablespoons of buckwheat flour.
- Generously flour a surface and cut the ball of dough into 4 sections.
- Roll each section out into a long, even snake-like roll.
- Using a knife, cut off in 1/2-1 inch sections.
- You can leave gnocchi as is or roll each section with your thumb along the tines of a fork (see video above) to get the standard lines.
- Set gnocchi pieces aside on a parchment lined sheet pan.
- You can freeze them at this point and cook off later (from frozen) or, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook until they start to float (about 3 minutes).
- Remove gnocchi from cooking water carefully with a slotted spoon or strainer and transfer to a serving bowl.
For the Bolognese
- Add olive oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Once hot, add garlic, onions and carrots and saute for 3 minutes until softened.
- Add ground beef and cook until browned. Drain fat from pan carefully if desired at this point.
- Add tomatoes, rosemary, parsley, seasonings and tomato paste and simmer over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes.
- Top gnocchi with spoonfuls of bolognese and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
making this recipe right now. dough is a complete failure. had to added almost 2cups more buckwheat to get it to firm up to anything workable. have not tasted it yet. i didn’t use the parm cheese, but i can’t imagine that this alone would have made the dough so completely unworkable. i’m sad as i had such high hopes for this. husband was more patient and is trying to get it to work. hoping the flavour will come through though after added so much extra flour.
I made the recipe for the bolognese sauce the other night. I already had sweet potato gnocchi on hand. The bolognese sauce was good and was certainly a fall-flavored recipe. The fresh rosemary completely makes this dish. Additionally, I added another table spoon of the tomato paste for a little more of a “sauce” feel to the recipe, only a pinch of nutmeg instead of what you suggest and topped with parm cheese. Anyway – while the gnochhi didn’t get rave reviews here the topping is worth a try.
I like the concept of a GF gnocchi, but I have to agree with Michael. These were bland as f***. It needs a lot of help. Perhaps some full fat ricotta or brown sugar or both! I really had high hopes for this recipe, but it is a complete waste of time and money.
Wow, that recipe looks great! I try to eat Paleo most of the time, do you think the recipe would work if you cut out the buckwheat flour and instead increased the almond meal and coconut flour to 3/4 cup each?
I’m honestly not sure Katerina, I eat paleo most of the time too but was scared to do all almond/coconut flour with these because I felt like it needed a stronger binding agent. Even with the amount I used, they’re definitely more fragile than typical gnocchi b/c of the nut meals/flours so I’m not sure 100% nut flour would work too well without falling apart while boiling.
Well, I think I’m going to try it. I’ll let you know how it goes!
Cheers!
Sorry….I just tried this recipe. Absolute worst gnocchi I’ve ever had. There was no flavor. Not enough salt and not sweet at all. Buckwheat flour? Almond flour? Really? This is supposed to taste good? I took one bite of these and three the whole batch out then went to McDonalds. Really disappointed with this dog food. 1 star is too many.
RUUUDE
This gnocchi look beautiful! I cannot wait to give them a try. Do you think it is possible to ommit the parmesan or use nutritional yeast instead?
And “GA-NOTCH-EE” – oh man, that’s so funny, I nearly peed my pants.
I would think so!
Sweet potato gnocchi is my fave, if it’s on the menu at a restaurant there’s not even a question of what I’m ordering. I’m so trying this.
This looks so good…I am going to try with some ground turkey meat so I can enjoy with my family. Sounds like such a great combination. Nice job on the video – fun!
Sounds wonderful and gluten free :) Do you think I can skip the cheese to make it dairy free, or add more flour?
I’m sure you could, but I haven’t tried it that way.
Awesome how-to, Gina! I’ve wanted to make sweet potato gnocchi for quite some time and would not have known how to follow written instruction had you not shown me the thumb trick. Very cool and great recipe!