April 25th, 2010 yam gnocchi with a lemon-dill reduction, zucchini fettucine, spinach, and roasted red pepper wrapped asparagus posted by malloreigh in Dinner & Photos & Recipes & Sauces

Kaylie’s brainchild and hard work – we made this for Lindsay (and Robert as well, but unfortunately he was indisposed with a bad case of food poisoning and had to suffer only hearing about it later). The gnocchi, which neither of us had ever made by hand anymore, was surprisingly easy! We also made some with russet potatoes, but it fell apart… gonna have to try that one again. Anyway, here’s the recipe.

Handmade Yam Gnocchi

1. Peel and chop 1 yam or sweet potato (or more) into manageable pieces. Bring some water to a boil and boil the yam until pierced easily with a fork. Drain in a colander, and rinse well with cold water.
2. Mash the yam until it’s smooth, create a well in the top, and drop in a dollop of Earth Balance or other vegan margarine. Let this cool.
3. Once it’s cooled, add whatever spices and flavourings you’d like – we added fresh dill, dried tarragon, salt, and garlic powder. Keep the flavourings light because this will be a very delicate and beautiful pasta once it’s done.
4. Using your hands, create a dough. Add unbleached all-purpose flour in small amounts (that is, white flour) and work it in; keep adding more until you’ve got a dough that’s not sticky. We probably used about a cup, but this will vary based on the size and number of yams you’ve used.
5. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil on the stove; this will ensure it’s ready as soon as you finish the gnocchi.
6. While your water boils, roll the dough until it’s a snake about one inch or less in diameter. Cut into pieces about 2cm wide and flatten slightly with a fork. Drop the freshly prepared gnocchi into the boiling water; remove with a slotted spoon a minute or two after they rise to the surface. At this point you can simply drain them, or, as we did, you can fry them lightly.

Serve your gnocchi with a lightly flavoured sauce – nothing overpowering. Kaylie made a lemon-dill-mushroom sauce that was really nice, but I’m not sure what her method was. I really like the idea of the lemon cashew cream or thyme vinaigrette from VeganYumYum.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 25th, 2010 at 11:29 pm and is filed under Dinner, Photos, Recipes, Sauces. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.