Butternut Squash & Potato Gnocchi (with a Rosemary-Sage Parmesan Sauce)

This recipe is based on a mix of recipes by Alton Brown and Michael Chiarello. You know, a little from column A and a little from column B. I’d never made gnocchi before when I tried these and it was pretty easy. A bit tedious but very much worth it.

As it was pre-Thanksgiving, my first impulse was to make pumpkin gnocchi but jwa has a low tolerance for pumpkin even during the holidays. Strangely, though, he has no problem with butternut squash. He’s weird.

Butternut Squash & Potato Gnocchi
1 pound russet potatoes (about 2 medium potatoes)
1 pound butternut squash
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 to 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting board and dough

Peel and quarter the potatoes. Boil until very fork tender, 15-20 minute. Here’s a good trick I saw Emeril do and I use it whenever I make mashed potatoes — return the cooked potatoes to the hot pan. Let them dry out over medium heat for about 30 seconds. Then continue. Yay! No water logged potatoes.

Let cool a bit and then pass the potatoes through a potato ricer or grate them on the large holes of a box grater.
While the potatoes are cooling, work on the squash. If you can find peeled, cubed squash, use that. I steamed mine in the microwave for five minutes in the bag I bought it in, then pressed it through a ricer. Thank you, Trader Joe’s.

The other options are to roast a halved squash in the oven, scoop out the flesh and use that. Or, for the daring, peel and cube a raw squash and then roast or microwave the squash cubes from there. Whatever your choice, end up with cooked squash in a bowl, ideally squash that has been pressed through a potato ricer.

Once you have your potatoes and squash riced, make a mound out of them in a big bowl, with a well in the middle, add the egg and yolk, the cheese, nutmeg, garlic, salt, and pepper. Mix well with hands or a rubber spatula. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the flour over the potatoes and using your knuckles, press it into the potatoes.

Fold the mass over on itself and press down again. Sprinkle on more flour, little by little, folding and pressing the dough until it just holds together and seems a bit sticky. The trick, I think, is to stop adding flour when you think you need just a little bit more. The ropes of dough will pick up flour when rolled and will work just fine, (at least it worked that way for me).

Keeping your work surface and the dough lightly floured, cut the dough into 4 pieces. Roll each piece on a generously floured board, into a rope about 1/2-inch in diameter. Cut into 1/2-inch-long pieces.

You can cook these as is or form them into the classic gnocchi shape with a gnocchi board, ridged butter paddle, or the tines of a fork. I used a fork. Roll the gnocchi along the times of the fork making light indentations and curving the gnocchi just a bit. I hear that the indentation holds the sauce and helps gnocchi cook faster. As you can see, by the end I got a little lazy and scored them with the fork against the board, rather than just rolling the fork aganist the gnocchi. I figure it’s all good — plus my fingers started to hurt a little.

When ready to cook, bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt. Drop in the gnocchi and cook for about 90 seconds from the time they rise to the surface. Remove the cooked gnocchi with a skimmer, shake off the excess water, and serve as desired.

These would be great with just some olive oil drizzled on top (and maybe some chopped tomatoes), but I made a quick sauce by whipping up a bechamel sauce first (2 tbsp butter + 2 tbsp flour), 1 1/2 cups milk (skim), then adding some chopped rosemary and sage, a dash of nutmeg, about a quarter cup of Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. With this, we also had steamed broccoli on the side and a nice bottle of red wine. It was delicious.