Punkin’ Gnocchi with Browned Butter Sage

How are you doing on this fine Monday morning? I hope that you had a great weekend and are ready for the first work week of December. I’m not sure how December is so suddenly upon us, but I am sooo excited for everything Christmas, that it does not matter in the least.  Bring on the decorating, Christmas movies, present shopping and of course, Christmas baking!

For my American readers, I hope that you have broken free from your turkey coma and are not completely sick of pumpkin quite yet…. because I found a new recipe at Steamy Kitchen that looked so mouth-watering-ly delicious, I had to try my hand at making my own version of the dish. Yes, for the first time ever, I made my own gnocchi. Pumpkin gnocchi at that!

To my surprise, it wasn’t difficult to make and I was definitely happy with the end result. The recipe that I’ve given below doesn’t look like it would feed 4 people but because gnocchi is so filling, it really is enough.

I personally can never get enough punkin’ in my life, or so I thought until I tried to make mini pumpkin pies with some friends last week. They were horrible and didn’t even bake through, so we wrote them off and hoped my friend’s boyfriend would polish them off for us. (He’d be crazy if he actually did.) But this gnocchi is Grade-A and has me in love with pumpkin once again. Let me know if you give it a whirl!

Pumpkin Gnocchi with Brown Butter Sage Recipe
Serves 4

1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 cup flour (added 1/2 cup at a time)

3 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 sprigs sage (more for garnish)
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
Parmesan cheese to taste

First combine the pumpkin, Parmesan cheese, egg yolk, zest, salt and nutmeg. Mix the mixture well. Measure out the 2 cups of flour but only add approximately 1 cup to the mixture at a time, mixing with a spatula. After you add the second cup of flour, get your hands in on the fun and knead the mixture with your fingertips. Be sure that you mix until the flour is incorporated through but do not knead for more than 1-2 minutes or you will be over-doing it.

Find a clean surface and dust with flour. Break the dough into 4 equal parts and roll the first part into a long, log of 1″ in diameter. Cut the dough into 1″ pieces.

Heat a frying pan with 1 Tbsp each of butter and olive oil. Add a few pieces of gnocchi so that the pan is full but none of the pieces are touching. Fry on medium heat for 1-2 minutes, turning as needed until all sides are golden. Remove the pieces and place on a large baking sheet. Keep the sheet warm in the oven until all pieces have been cooked.

Once gnocchi is complete, wipe down the pan with a paper towel. Add 2 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp of olive oil. Once it is hot, add in the fresh sage. Allow the sage to sizzle until it is fragrant and then remove but do not discard. Add the balsamic vinegar and whisk the mixture. Simmer on low for 1 minute approximately and then pour over the gnocchi and sage pieces. Serve gnocchi warm with Parmesan cheese.