This Sweet Potato Gnocchi is so easy to make with just a few ingredients. I tossed this recipe with shrimp and the perfect creamy sauce for an amazing dinner!
I love ordering gnocchi when I eat out at Italian restaurants but had never thought of making it myself. I guess I thought it is really hard to make. But it is so easy with just 4 ingredients! Potatoes, flour, an egg and a little salt. This recipe swaps out the white potatoes for sweet potatoes for the perfect gnocchi to serve with a creamy sauce. This recipe is closely becoming a favorite to our ever popular Bang Bang Shrimp with Pasta.
You can easily swap out all-purpose flour for gluten free flour (like Bob’s Red Mill One-to-One flour). You could even use whole wheat flour if you’d like.
What makes this Sweet Potato Gnocchi recipe so easy?
Other than needing just a few ingredients, you can microwave the potatoes for just 8-10 minutes. You can also bake them on 400 degrees F for about 40-45 minutes, if you’d like of course. Then mash the potatoes until they are completely smooth with no lumps, then mix the potatoes with an egg and combine well.
Then add in the 1 and a 1/2 cups of flour and the salt in small batches. Add flour to your fingers and use your hands to mash and blend the flour mixture and sweet potatoes together well until you form a dry, round ball of dough. If the dough is sticky, simply add a little more flour until the dough is drier.
I like to slice the dough in half and then slice each of those pieces in half again to have 8 slices. The roll each slice into a long rope about 1/2 inch thick and slice off pieces about an inch long to cook.
After cutting the 1 inch pieces, you can press each piece with a fork to create the little lines you typically see on gnocchi. This step isn’t required but it does help the sauce coat the gnocchi so nicely!
If you don’t want to cook it all at once, you can refrigerate the dough in an airtight container for up to 3 days or freeze it for up to 3 months.
Then you simply boil water and cook them in batches for just a few minutes until they float.
While cooking the gnocchi, cook the shrimp and sun-dried tomatoes. Then mix the one cup of fat free milk and 2 tablespoons of corn starch or flour in a bowl. Add the milk mixture to the cooked shrimp and tomatoes, and add the red pepper flakes to create the fabulous sauce. (if you prefer less spice, you can leave out the red pepper flakes)
Pro Tip: You can substitute heavy cream for the milk and corn starch mixture for a richer sauce but it will increase the calories a lot! As much as I love them, I try to make versions at home a tad healthier and save the heavy cream sauces for when I’m at my favorite restaurants.
Try these other fabulous seafood recipes too:
Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Shrimp and Creamy Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 large sweet potatoes approx 4 cups
- 1 large egg
- 1 ½ cups flour plus additional ½ cup for surface
- 1 tablespoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 lb uncooked small shrimp deveined and skin removed
- 4 tablespoons butter olive oil is fine as well
- 4 ounces sundried tomatoes
- 1 cup fat free milk you can use any milk you prefer
- 2 tablespoons corn starch or flour
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
Instructions
Make the gnocchi dough
- Wash and and poke a few holes in each sweet potato.
- Microwave potatoes for 8-10 minutes or until they are soft.
- Let the potatoes cool enough to be able to remove the skin.
- Place the potato flesh in a medium sized bowl and mash the potatoes until they are completely smooth with no lumps.
- Add in the egg and mix thoroughly.
- Sprinkle ½ cup of flour onto a cutting board or countertop.
- Add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 and ½ cups of the flour in bathes of 1/2 cup and blend together completely.
- Knead the pasta dough for 5 minutes, adding in flour when it gets a sticky.
- Once you have formed a solid round dough, slice it in half and then slice each half in half again so you have 4 equal sizes. Then slice each of those quarters in half so you have 8 equal pieces of dough.
- Roll each of the sections of dough into long strips, approx ½ inch thick.
- Then cut each strip into 1 inch long gnocchi pieces (You can press each piece with the prongs of a fork if you’d like to get the traditional gnocchi look that soaks up the sauce nicely)
Cook the gnocchi:
- Boil a large pot of water over high heat with about 2 teaspoons of salt.
- Add several pieces of gnocchi to the water and boil for approx. 2-3 minutes until they float to the top.
- Remove the gnocchi with a slotted spoon and place on a plate.
For the Shrimp and Creamy Sauce:
- While cooking the gnocchi in batches, prepare the shrimp and sauce.
- Add the butter to a large saute pan and melt over medium high heat.
- Add the shrimp, diced sun-dried tomatoes and pepper to the pan and cook for approx. 4 minutes tossing the shrimp until they turn pink.
- Mix the 1 cup of milk with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch or flour.
- Pour the milk mixture in with the shrimp and tomatoes and bring to a boil.
- Reduce and simmer for 5 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken.
- Add the amount of cooked gnocchi and red pepper flakes you prefer into the sauce and stir to coat thoroughly.
- Top with parmesan cheese, if desired
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