I harvested the last of my vegetables from the farm; one lonely over grown pie pumpkin and some incredibly gnarly carrots and with them only one thing to do!
Whip up some pumpkin gnocchi to serve with an intensely flavored beef stew in honor of Autumn.
Unlike potato gnocchi which is feather light other vegetable gnocchi that I have made have been dense. Dense as in as heavy as a belly bomber! Due to the water content in pumpkin making a light gnocchi is impossible. If you choose to cut it with some lovely dry russet potato, you have a bit of a chance to lighten the dumpling. But if you go with just pumpkin, as I did, the end product is much heavier.
Now that I’ve warned you, you can decide if you want to forge ahead. Dense and heavy doesn’t mean that pumpkin gnocchi isn’t good it’s just different!
I used the whole pumpkin which yielded six cups of cooked vegetable. As I mentioned earlier, my pumpkin was a bit over grown. Typically, a ripe pie pumpkin weighs around two pounds. I ended up with enough gnocchi to feed an army! Luckily it freezes beautifully so I’ll have it on hand when I need it
I served my pumpkin gnocchi with a cheap cut of beef, slow braised with root veggies, garlic, fresh rosemary and a big bold red wine. It was fork tender delicious!
Instead of poaching the gnocchi, I sautéed them in a mixture of butter and extra virgin olive oil. They were crispy on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside. It’s Thanksgiving here in Canada this weekend so I’ll be serving my pumpkin gnocchi at some point over the holiday.
Crispy Pumpkin Gnocchi
preheat oven 350*F
1 pie pumpkin, halved and seeded
fresh nutmeg
Tipo 00 or all-purpose flour
sea salt
semolina flour
Place pumpkin halves on a parchment lined baking sheet, cut side down and bake for 1 hour or until pumpkin pierces easily with a knife
Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes then scrape the flesh into a large mixing bowl. You can place the pumpkin flesh in a cheesecloth lined sieve to remove any excess water but I don’t find that it makes much difference.
Beat the pumpkin with an electric beater until smooth…mixture will be a little damp
Add 1 cup Tipo 00 flour or all-purpose flour to every cup of pumpkin
Season with 1/2 teaspoon sea salt for every cup of pumpkin
add freshly nutmeg to taste
You should be able to knead the pumpkin mixture. If you can not, add a little more flour until you can.
Place dough on a floured board and knead 4 or 5 times…gently press the dough into a flat disk
Using a very sharp knife, divide the gnocchi into strips
Working with one strip at a time, gently roll the strip into a cylinder 1″ thick
Cut the gnocchi in 1 ” pieces and place on a baking sheet that’s been sprinkled with a little semolina flour.
Continue until all the pumpkin mixture has been used up.
Allow the gnocchi to sit for 1/2 hour before cooking or place the baking sheet with your gnocchi in the freezer. When the gnocchi is solid, store it in freezer proof bags and use as needed.
To saute:
Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and one tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add gnocchi and fry gently until browned on all sides.
Serve with your favorite sauce or with a little grated parmigiano.
Thanks for reading
