Ricotta & Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Buttermilk Mornay, Fresh Figs, and Pancetta (2024)

After I was off camera I proceeded to finish making my dough in a calm fashion. I wasn’t about to let perfectly good homemade ricotta and local sweet potatoes and egg go to waste. Them’s, as they say, good eatin’. I know gnocchi can have a reputation as a bit of a bear to work with, but I assure you this dough is exceedingly simple. (So simple, in fact, Idelusionallythought I could do it in a few minutes my first time on camera…)

All it takes is a sense of touch. Think with your fingers. You don’t want your dough too sticky to handle nor do you want to add too much flour. So just add flour bit by bit, I usually start with half a cup and add 1/4 cup at a time after that up to 1 1/4 cups total. So just add it until your gnocchi is a workable, soft play-dough-like consistency. Adding too much flour will make your gnocchi tough, so easy does it. The excellent thing about this is once you’ve made your gnocchi and lined them all up on your baking sheet like little soldiers you can freeze them (on the sheet tray to prevent sticking) and then toss them all in a ziplock in the freezer and keep them for up to 3 months. Which means that nothing stands between you and impromptu homemade gnocchi but a pot of boiling water, about 3 minutes, and deciding what to put with them. And I’m here to help with that last part. Figs! Buttermilk mornay (aka cheese sauce)! Pancetta (aka bacon)! If this seems odd, just trust me. It’ll be real good, baby. You’ll see.

We eat a lot of sweet potatoes when they abound at the market, specifically, we eat a lot of baked sweet potatoes. Butter, salt, and little else. But even for sweet potato enthusiasts such as ourselves (I think the high levels of potassium excite us…), baked sweet potatoes night after night can get boring. Herein lies the solution.

The other great thing about these gnocchi are how affordable they are. I don’t usually go on about how quick, cheap, and convenient things are (though these are all of those things). I think that sort of mindset and language reduces your meals to a love affair in the red light district. Even still, the beautiful thing about shopping at the market and using raw ingredients instead of preprepared ones is that you do save money in cutting out the middle man. Added bonus, you get a far better tasting product and your money goes to your community. Wins abound.

For Gnocchi:

• 2 lbs sweet potatoes
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2/3 cup whole milk ricotta Drained if using store bought, but I make my own using this recipe.
• 1-1 ½ cups all purpose flour
• pinch freshly grated nutmeg
• ¼ tsp cinnamon

For Mornay Sauce:

• 2 Tbsp butter
• 3 Tbsp all purpose flour
• 2 cups buttermilk
• fresh grated nutmeg
• cayenne
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 oz grated gruyere cheese about ½ cup, packed

To Serve:

• 12 figs quartered
• 6 slices pancetta fried crispy and crumbled
• fresh chives chopped fine (sage is also good here)

To make gnocchi:

• Prick potatoes all over with a fork and steam in microwave wrapped in damp paper towels until tender all the way through when pierced & fully cooked. Rotate half way through cooking, about 3-5 minutes per side for medium sized potatoes. Alternately, roast in a 400° F oven about 50-60 minutes.

• While potatoes are still hot, handling with towels, slice in half. Scoop flesh out and press through a potato ricer into a rectangle (not a pile). Alternately you can use a food mill or box grater to shred the potatoes. Let cool until about room temperature. (Note: the potatoes are riced hot and into a rectangle to maximize their release of steam because the less moisture in your potatoes the less flour you will need to add resulting in lighter gnocchi. Also, I do not salt my gnocchi as salt draws in moisture, making for mushy gnocchi. Rather, I generously salt the cooking water. The more you know…)

• Drizzle potatoes with egg yolk, crumble the ricotta on top, and sprinkle ½ cup of flour on top. Using a bench scraper or spatula, cut the flour, yolk, and ricotta into the potatoes using a chopping motion until beginning to become incorporated. Then start using the bench scraper to fold the mixture together. Sprinkle with an additional ¼ cup of flour, and chop/fold it in. At this point I switch to using my hands, lightly floured.

• Gather the dough into a ball. If the dough is still too sticky to do this, work in up to an additional ¼ cup flour. Pat dough into a disc. If disc is too sticky, sprinkle with another ¼ cup flour. Work in flour, if needed, until just not too sticky to handle. Form dough into a compact log and let rest 5 minutes.

• Cut log into 8 individual segments. Lightly flour work surface. Roll one segment out at a time into 1” thick logs. Cut logs into individual pieces, about 1”. To create grooves, the gnocchi can be rolled on a gnocchi board or the tines of the fork. This step is optional. Place formed gnocchi on a parchment lined baking sheet. Refrigerate until ready to cook if cooking soon, otherwise the gnocchi can be frozen on the sheet tray and then placed into a ziplock bag and kept in the freezer up to 3 months. To cook frozen gnocchi just put directly from freezer into boiling water just as with fresh gnocchi, do not thaw.

• sweet potato ricotta gnocchi

To make sauce:

• Melt 2 tbsp butter over low heat. Stir in 3 Tbsp flour. Bring roux to a bubble on medium low and let cook about two minutes, careful not to brown. Meanwhile warm buttermilk slowly and ¼ tsp salt until just warm. Do not get it too hot or it will curdle, just warm it gently. Whisking constantly slowly pour warm buttermilk into roux. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and whisk constantly until thickened. Remove from heat, stir in fresh nutmeg & cayenne to taste. Stir in cheese until fully melted. Taste and adjust seasoning if desired. Sauce can be kept warm over a simmering water bath, stirring occasionally to prevent skin from forming or it can be just set aside, uncovered, if using shortly. Again, stir to prevent skin.

• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add gnocchi. Give them a gentle stir after a few seconds to prevent sticking. Cook about 2 minutes or until they float to the top. Remove, draining well, with a slotted spoon or spider. Toss gently with mornay sauce, pancetta, and figs. Sprinkle with chives and serve immediately.