Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Sage, Walnut and Pumpkin Seed Butter

Sweet potato gives your gnocchi a beautiful colour, and is combined with normal potatoes for the perfect consistency. Add some freshly roasted seeds and nuts and sage, and you’ve got a delicious meal.

Ingredients:

• 300g potato (net weight) so start with about 500g whole potatoes
• 300g sweet potato (net weight) so start with about 500g whole sweet potato
• 120g flour plus extra for dusting
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 large pinch of salt
• 1 handful fresh sage, half whole and half finely sliced
• 50g walnuts
• 50g pumpkin seeds 
• 50g salted butter
• Olive oil
• Half a lemon 
• Salt & Pepper

Method

Heat your oven to 180°C and bake your potatoes whole until soft in the middle (test with a knife). The advantage of baking over boiling is that you will lose a lot of moisture, which you will see comes in handy later in the process.

Leave your potatoes to cool a little but whilst warm scoop out all the flesh and press through a sieve using a spatula. Add the egg yolks and mix until combined, then add the flour about a quarter at a time. Every potato has a slightly different consistency, so go slowly to ensure you get the right consistency. You want it to be dry enough to shape but not sticky. Keep sprinkling where needed. 

Roll the dough into little ropes about 3cm wide and just cut off small chunks, 3-4cm each.  You can just leave them as a parcel or give it a bit of a gnocchi forming treatment with the back of a fork.  Use more flour if needed to stop them sticking.

Take a big saucepan and boil some water, turn down the heat to stop the water from bubbling and very gently immerse your gnocchi, you will have to do this in batches. When they are cooked they will float to the surface, remove with a slotted spoon and lightly coat them with olive oil. You can now chill them for up to 3 days. 

Also in advance, roast off the crushed walnuts and pumpkin seeds on a low heat in a dry pan. Once the seeds have popped and coloured, remove and set aside.

When ready to serve your Gnocchi, put a pan on a medium high heat and add olive oil. Carefully place your Gnocchi in the pan and cook until they are golden brown, turn individually.

Add the butter, seeds and sliced sage and reduce heat to medium. Keep an eye on the colour of the Gnocchi, they want to be coloured and crispy but not black!

Add a good squeeze of lemon juice, check the seasoning and serve using the remaining sage to garnish.

A glass of Mirabeau Etoile will be lovely with this. Bon Appetit