Pumpkin Gnocchi

Pumpkin Gnocchi

YES! It is the season for pumpkin everything, and pumpkin everything also includes Pumpkin Gnocchi.
The beauty of this dish is that it's so versatile you could serve it as a main dish or as an appetizer... and I wouldn't blame you if you decide to toss it with some caramel sauce and serve it as a dessert...humm.. here's an idea! ;)

I served this flavorful Pumpkin Gnocchi with sauteed spinach and walnuts but your serving options are endless really, a few yummy examples are: browned butter and sage, a creamy cheese sauce or in with some veggie or chicken broth.

Also, another great advantage is that you can prepare them ahead of time, toss them with vegetable oil (so they don't stick together) and store them in the fridge. Just before serving, add them in the sauce to warm them up. 

Pumpkin Gnocchi

Pumpkin Gnocchi

Preparation time: 1 hr 
Yield: 4 portions
Level: Easy / Medium

Ingredients

Gnocchi

• 400g Roasted pumpkin (Golden nugget, sugar pie)
• 300g All purpose flour
• 1 Egg
• 1 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/8 tsp Cinnamon 
• 1/8 tsp Nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp Grinded rosemary
• + All purpose flour for dusting
• 2 tbsp of vegetable oil  

Sauted Spinach

• 200g Fresh spinach
• 1 tbsp Butter
• 2 tsp Chopped garlic (1 large clove)
• 4 tbsp Chopped onion (1/4 of a medium onion)
• 1/2 cup Coarsely chopped walnuts
• Salt and Pepper to taste

To prepare the pumpkin for roasting, you can either cut it in half to remove the seeds or cut a lid at the top to remove the seeds. Roast it at 350 F (175 C) for 30 minutes. Mash it and set it aside to cool.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. 

In a bowl,  mix flour, salt and spices together (you can substitute the spices for pumpkin spice), then make a whole in the middle of the flour and add you egg and pumpkin mash. Work everything together until it forms a very sticky but uniform dough. 

To form the gnocchi, grab 1/5 of the dough and, dusting it generously with flour, roll it length-wise as if you were making a stick. With a flour dusted knife, cut the gnocchi "stick" into little pieces and slightly press one of the sides of the dumplings with a fork, to make indentations.

Cook the gnocchi in the pot of boiling water. When you drop them, they will sink to the bottom but when they cook, they will float back up. That's how you know they are ready. Remove them from the water and place them on a greased baking sheet. 

Tip: The gnocchi preparation can go really fast if you set up three stations: 1. working area where you will form the gnocchi dough into little dumplings 2. The pot of boiling water 3. greased baking sheet. Using 1/5 of the gnocchi dough, make them into little dumplings, then drop them in the water. While they cook, transform another portion of the gnocchi dough into dumplings. Remove cooked gnocchi from the water and drop them into the greased baking sheet. Repeat this process until all gnocchis are cooked. I swear, making it this way considerably reduces the time you need to spend in the kitchen. 

For the spinach tossing

Heat a large skillet to medium high. Melt butter then add onions. When onions become translucent, add garlic and cook for about a couple of minutes, until you notice the garlic gaining a golden color. Add the chopped walnuts and spinach and season with salt and pepper. When spinach is reduced to 1/2 of it's original volume, add gnocchi, toss everything together and cook for a couple of more minutes, until spinach is cooked and dumplings are warm.