Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Spinach and Parmesan Cream Sauce

This is my new favorite food. I think one reason I like it so much is because I thought of it all by myself! That doesn't happen very often. I was rummaging through my refrigerator one night trying to decide what to cook for dinner. I found: spinach and parmesan cheese. Pretty exciting, I know. I had a sweet potato sitting on the counter for about a week, and decided I needed to do something with it. Noticing a trend with the veggies sitting on my counter? Let me remind you. The spaghetti squash I used in my pad thai was borderline old. Anyway, I brainstormed for a mintue on what to do with a sweet potato, spinach, and parmesan cheese. I wasn't feeling baked or mashed sweet potato and adding spinach to that just sounded boring. The obvious choice was to make pan fried gnocchi. I had made it a few times before, but always made a carbonara sauce to go with it. Parmesan cheese is my favorite cheese to make cheese sauce with, and the spinach was just there and I had to use it before it went bad. So it was settled. Sweet potato gnocchi with spinach and parmesean cream sauce was about to be created. I am giving you my recipe even though it is a little vague. I was serious when I said I do not like to measure ingredients. I just add them until it looks or tastes how I want it. I really hope you try this, I am pretty sure it would be difficult to mess it up. I really don't know though, some peole are cooking challenged....

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

2 sweet potatoes – cooked and mashed (I poke holes in mine and microwave them, about 3 min on each side for 1)

1 cup of flour- start with this and add more as needed (until the dough is not very sticky)

1 egg

Directions:

1.       Mix ingredients together until a dough forms. You want it to be a manageable, not too sticky consistency.

2.       Get a pot of water boiling

3.       Take small sections of the dough and roll it out on a floured surface. Roll the dough into long, thin snake-like shapes

4.       Cut the gnocchi into ½- 1 inch long sections. It gets larger when it is boiled.

5.       Add gnocchi to boiling water and cook for about 5 min or until it is cooked to your liking (I always try a piece before taking it out of the water) I usually have to cook it in a few batches. One batch will do if you have a huge pot.

6.       While gnocchi is boiling get a pan heated up with olive oil and/or butter

7.       Add gnocchi to pan after taking it out of the water. I cook mine until it has a little crunch to it and is golden brown

Ingredients for spinach and parmesan sauce:

Fresh spinach – tear it into small pieces, as much as you want. It shrinks when it is cooked.

Butter (optional; sometimes there is enough butter left on the gnocchi from pan frying it)

Milk and/or heavy cream

Shredded parmesan cheese

I do not measure any of these ingredients. I combine them all in a sauce pan together until they are well combined and the cheese is melted. You can also add the spinach to the frying pan and sauté it with the gnocchi if you'd like. When everything is ready I dump the gnocchi into the pot and mix with the cheese sauce. This makes enough to serve 2. Depending on how much you eat, there may or may not be leftovers. It is just as good reheated!

 

I am working on getting the pictures to be larger. In the meantime just click on it and it will enlarge!