Sweet Potato Gnocchi With Walnut Sage Brown Butter Sauce
Yesterday was pretty awesome. Joe was in St. Louis for the weekend, so I piddled around making absurd amounts ice cream (Mint Chip on the blog tomorrow!) and pasta (I still have half the gnocchi frozen, so except a different gnocchi meal later this week). Anyway he got home late yesterday afternoon, I whipped up a huge dinner, and then we snuck in the last show of UCB's Del Close Marathon. DCM is an annual 56 hour improv marathon held at several locations around the city. At last years DCM, we had tickets to see Nick Kroll and Friends, but got the dates mixed up and missed the show. Turns out that "Friends" meant John Mulaney and Jason Mantzoukas, so we were pretty devastated. Anyway, since Joe was gone for the weekend, we could only go to the last show - the 10 pm Asssscat3000. Since we got tickets, Joe and I had been debating who the Monologist would be (The Monologist at Asssscat uses the audience's word suggestion to tell a few stories that the players then use for the improv scenes. At the weekly show it's often a comedian or writer, and at the DCM Asssscats it's almost always someone of significant note). At last years DCM Asssscats, the Monologists were Amy Schumer and Broad City. Anyway, throughout dinner and the whole train ride to the show, Joe and I placed final bets. I guessed Stephen Colbert or Trevor Noah. Joe guessed David Letterman. It turned out to be an unusual show because the Monologists were Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh (3 of the founding UCB 4). The three of them were also players, so we got to see them do the improv show, as expected, and tell a lot of great stories about their childhoods and Chicago in the 90s. The other players included Jason Mantzoukas, Zach Woods, Adam Pally, Shannon O'Neal, Betsy Sodaro, and John Gemberling, as well as many others. It was such a fun and funny night!
Here's a picture of them welcoming the audience and applauding the one guy in the crowd who managed to stay up for the whole 56 hours.
On to the gnocchi! Last week I made ricotta gnocchi, but didn't photograph it for the blog because it was too dark. I think I like the ricotta gnocchi more, it was a little lighter, and the sweet potato flavor that I was expecting from this batch didn't really shine through. They were still absolutely delicious though. I used this recipe from Bon Appétit and followed it pretty directly. The only exception was adding walnuts to the sauce, and I recommend doing that as well.
- 2 1-pound red-skinned sweet potatoes pierced all over with fork
- 1 12-ounce container fresh ricotta cheese, drained in sieve 2 hours
- 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons (packed) brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons plus 2 tablespoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground allspice
- 2 3/4 cups (about) all purpose flour
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
- 6 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
First, I roasted the potatoes until they were soft. Then I scooped out the innards and mashed them with ricotta and parmesan. Next I added the brown sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, and allspice.
Next, I added the flour 1/2 cup at a time. I needed way more flour than the 2 3/4 advised by Bon Appétit. I ended up using nearly 4 cups before the dough came together.
I cup the dough into 10 sections and rolled out long dough ropes, like when I made orecchiette. I cut the ropes into 1'' pillows and rolled a fork over them for texture. I lined all the gnocchi on nonstick cookie sheets and keep them in freezer until I was ready to cook.
I browned the butter and the walnuts together on the stover, white the gnocchi boiled. At the last minute, I added the sage and then tossed the gnocchi in the sauce.
Here's the outcome! It was a really great meal, and an even better night, but the sweet potato flavor wasn't as strong as I'd hoped. I'll the rest of the gnocchi in a red sauce this week and report back.