sweet potato cauliflower gnocchi

I'd say I did pretty good for my first time making gnocchi. It's actually one of the easier types of pastas to make; you don't even need a pasta maker since the dough just needs to be rolled into logs and cut into pieces. 

But let's face it, traditional potato gnocchi isn't weird enough, so I used sweet potatoes instead. Then it turned out I didn't have enough mashed sweet potatoes for this recipe so I bought some mashed cauliflower(which, by the way is not a potato, but it it is a potato substitute) to go into the gnocchi as well. You barely even taste any cauliflower though.

To make the recipe even more sweet potato-ey, I added some sweet potato flour into the dough. But it turns out sweet potato flour needs a lot of assistance from good ol' all-purpose flour to actually form any sort of dough the can be kneaded and not stick to the countertop. 

I tried rolling each gnocchi against the back of a fork to get the rivets you see on the outside of traditional gnocchi- the rivets were there, but they weren't visible to the camera. The rivets also have an important function- they help sauce stick to the gnocchi better. 

The gnocchi tasted hearty and heavy, just like gnocchi should. Even though they look like chicken nuggets, they'd make for a good prank. 

When my dad tried the gnocchi, he stated the obvious: it's doughy and potato-ey, but would be great with some meat sauce(which is his favorite when it comes to making spaghetti). 

HELPFUL LINK: Sweet Potato Flour: www.amazon.com/Z%C3%B3calo-Peru-Sweet-Potato-Flour/dp/B0032BYMJE/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1507572801&sr=8-3&

You will need: 

For the cooking equipment: 

A large bowl
A medium bowl
2 small bowls
A large saucepot
A slotted spoon

For the gnocchi: 

All-purpose flour(start off with 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup sweet potato flour(see HELPFUL LINK)
Pinch of salt
12 oz. mashed sweet potatoes
6 oz. mashed cauliflower
1/2 tbsp. olive oil
1 egg

To top the gnocchi:

Tomato sauce
Parmesan cheese

1. Put the first 3 ingredients into a medium bowl and mix all the ingredients together. 
2. In a large bowl, put the next 3 ingredients in it.
3. Beat 1 egg in a small bowl and place only the egg yolk into the large bowl. Mix all the ingredients in that bowl together.
4.  Add the flour mixture to the mashed sweet potato mixture and mix until you get a crumbly dough. This will require you to use more all-purpose flour just to not the dough stuck on your hands. 
5. Flour your countertop or similar surface with all-purpose flour. Place the dough onto the floured surface and knead the dough until you get a firm dough ball. If the dough ball keeps sticking to the surface, add more all-purpose flour to both the ball and surface. 
6. Once you get your dough ball, flour your surface again with fresh all-purpose flour and break apart a lemon-sized piece of the dough. Roll the dough into a log shape and cut it into pillow-like shapes with a butter knife. Repeat until all the dough is turned into gnocchi. 
7. Make rivets in each gnocchi by rolling it back and forth against the back of a spoon. 
8. Boil a pot of water in a large saucepot. Once the water is boiling, add a pinch of salt to the water and place the gnocchi into the boiling water, one gnocchi at a time. Each batch should only be 12-15 gnocchi. Let the gnocchi cook until they float to the surface of the boiling water, which should take about 2 minutes. 
9. Retrieve the cooked gnocchi with a slotted spoon and place into a bowl. Use the same pot of boiling water for all the gnocchi. That is, once one batch has been cooked and retrieved, immediately add the next batch of gnocchi into the boiling water. 
10. Top with tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese. Bon appetit! 

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