Have you tried gnocchi before? They’re little potato dumplings, ‘gnocchi’ means ‘lumps’ in Italian. How cute is that!? I love any dish that involves potatoes, especially sweet potatoes. These sweet potato gnocchi are covered in a sage butter sauce and sprinkled with a nutty hazelnut parmesan. Flavourful, hearty and wholesome, what more could you want? This dish is incredibly delicious and ticks ALL the comfort food boxes, perfect for November.
I’ve made these with a regular all purpose gluten free flour, but feel free to sub with plain flour if you prefer. You can bake the sweet potatoes the day before so they’re cool and ready to use when you prepare the gnocchi to save time. I like to make a big batch and freeze half the boiled gnocchi once cooled for quick weeknight meals, so you can just throw them into a skillet and cook them right away.
In the past I’ve struggled with gnocchi that are too soft or fall apart, but these worked perfectly, with a moreish crispy texture on the outside. The key to crispiness is to allow them to cool once you’ve boiled them. This way they crisp up quickly in the pan and brown a little on the edges. I’m getting hungry just thinking about them!
You can have whatever sauce you like with these gnocchi, but I LOVE browned butter sage sauce. Something about sage and sweet potato works really well together. Plus who doesn’t love potatoes with butter?
You can make the butter sauce ahead of time and if there’s any left over keep it in the fridge to add to other dishes throughout the week – it would be great with mashed potato too!
The hazelnut parmesan on top is totally optional but really adds that little something extra and is a wonderful gluten free alternative to breadcrumbs. My friend Niki over at Rebel Recipes often adds toasted hazelnuts to her dishes and totally inspired this parmesan. This makes more hazelnut parmesan than you’ll need, so store the leftovers in a jar and use on stews, pasta, soups and risottos, a little savoury crunch is an essential for me.
If you’re like me and don’t have a gnocchi board yet, don’t worry! A fork works just as well to create those classic little ridges on your dumplings. I checked this video to get the technique right. You can of course skip this bit and just make little ‘lumps’, whatever you like!
I’d love to hear if you try this recipe, friends! Let me know below if you make it, or even better, take a pic and tag me on Instagram @bos.kitchen.
xoxoxo
- 450g sweet potatoes
- 1.5-2 cups gluten free all purpose flour
- 2 tsp coconut sugar
- 1.2 tsp nutmeg
- 2tsp of salt
- 4 tbsp vegan margarine
- 5 tbsp chopped sage
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup hazelnuts
- ½ cup nutritional yeast
- ½ tsp salt
- Pinch of pepper
- Bake sweet potatoes for 20-25 minutes at 180•c, or until you can pierce easily with a knife. Slice in half and allow to cool fully.
- Prepare hazelnut parmesan by blending hazelnuts in a food processor until almost fully ground. Add in nutritional yeast and salt and pulse briefly to combine. Heat up a large skillet and toast hazelnut mixture for 5-7 minutes over a medium heat, stirring regularly. Allow to cool and transfer to a jar.
- Scoop out insides of sweet potatoes and mash in a large bowl. Add in sugar and 1 tsp salt and mix again. Add in flour ½ a cup at a time, until it forms a soft dough.*
- Roll onto floured surface and make four long ropes about 1 inch thick. Cut into 1 inch pieces and roll over a fork to make ridges.
- Bring a large pan of water to the boil, add tsp salt and boil gnocchi in batches until tender, around 5 mins per batch. Cool completely at room temp. Freeze any you won't use at this point.
- Prepare brown butter sauce by heating butter in a large skillet over a medium high heat. After about 5 minutes it should start to brown and smell amazing! Add in chopped sage and salt, stir briefly and take off the heat. Pour half the butter into a small dish and return skillet to a medium heat. Add in gnocchi and sauté for around 5-6 mins, until slightly crispy at the edges. Use remaining butter if you want to cook another batch of gnocchi and keep the cooked gnocchi warm in the oven. Sprinkle with hazelnut parmesan before serving.
Notes
- Depending on the moisture of your sweet potatoes and the blend in your flour, you may only need 1.5 cups of flour. The dough should be soft, but firm enough to hold together when rolled over a fork.
Hi Bo
I would love to try this but there seems to be something missing from the hazelnut Parmesan recipe. How much Parmesan do you use and you say to toast the Parmesan ? Is this correct ?
Thanks
Hi Debbie, thank you for stopping by! There’s no real ‘parmesan’ in this recipe, I’ve amended the recipe to make this a little clearer. The nutritional yeast adds the cheesy flavour. xoxo