The fall season is closely upon us transforming the garden into the shades of orange and yellow. Most of the summer produce is almost harvested and now comes the vegetable star of the fall, the mighty pumpkin. I really love pumpkins. They are so easy to grow, very healthy, and, if properly stored, can keep us fed all the way through the winter. One of the best uses of the pumpkin, if your kids won’t eat the pumpkin soup, is this ultimate pumpkin gnocchi.
My memories of perfect gnocchi, although potato gnocchi, goes back to 2012 when we toured Tuscany with our dear friends. Among other magnificent meals, for one dinner we headed to a remote family-owned restaurant in the middle of nowhere (even google maps was a bit confused). We had to pass a dirt cut-in road (literally the road was cut into the soil with the walls stretching well above the car) with less than a meter of space available around the car as we passed through. But once we arrived, a fairytale-like house spread before us with the views of the rolling hills in every direction.
We tried almost the whole menu, but the gnocchi stayed ingrained in my mind ever since. The texture was so velvety, smooth, and creamy but in no way mushy. Oh, how I miss Tuscany.
In honor of that trip and the memories, I set to make my ultimate pumpkin gnocchi which will have all taste points of our Tuscany trip.
secrets to velvety and smooth gnocchi …
What makes for perfect gnocchi?
In my book, it goes like this.
First, the density of the gnocchi, i.e. how chewy are the gnocchi. They should have a structure but not be chewy. Also, we never want them soggy and mushy.
Second, the taste. It should be subtle, velvety, and definitely not bland. Most likely we’ll serve them with a salty sauce so I like the gnocchi to have some contrast, so I usually make them on a slightly sweeter note. Plus, the pumpkin is sweet by default, so not much to remedy here. We want the pumpkin taste not to be too overwhelming as well.
Third, the structure. The gnocchi needs to hold the structure. We never want mushy gnocchi on a plate, but also it should have a nice rough exterior to hang on to the sauce perfectly.
So how do we go about to achieve all of this?
The most important thing is to reduce the water content as much as we can. Why? Water and flour give a chewy structure especially when gluten develops, so we want the least amount of water possible.
We can achieve this by baking the pumpkin, instead of cooking it, and then let it cool completely to room temperature before we start to mix in other ingredients. This way the steam which is trapped in the baked pumpkin is released and will not be part of our gnocchi and hence it will not require any additional flour.
When making gnocchi I always just use the egg yolk instead of the whole egg, as the egg white adds a level of chewiness which we want to avoid here.
For this recipe, I choose Kabocha pumpkin for its sweet and nutty flavor.
how to …
Making gnocchi involves some time and patience, but the reward is immense. Optimally, this is a weekend project when you have more time and can make a larger batch to freeze. This way you are all set whenever the gnocchi craving kicks in.
The complete process of making this ultimate pumpkin gnocchi involves four main steps:
- Preparing and baking the pumpkin.
- Making the dough.
- Rolling out the dough and shaping gnocchi.
- Freezing the gnocchi.
First and the second step are not to complicated especially if you are using the food processor. The third step involves a bit of patience. But, no worries. When the dough is good the shape does not really matter, it will still taste wonderful.
Step 2. Prepare the dough in the food processor 
Step 3.A. Shape the dough and cut into pieces 
Step 3.B. Roll out the cut dough pieces 
Step 3.C. Cut the rolled out dough pieces Step 3.D. Make the final gnocchi shape 
Step 4. Freezing the gnocchi
The ultimate pumpkin gnocchi
Equipment & Tools
- Food processor
- Gnocchi board
INGREDIENTS
For the pumpkin
- 550 g pumpkin (Kabocha, cleaned)
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter (small pieces)
- 1 tbsp olive oil (extra virgin)
For the dough
- 5 g potato starch
- 20 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 1 lemon (zest)
- ⅓ nutmeg (freshly grated)
- 1 egg yolk
- 155 g T00 flour
INSTRUCTIONS
Prepare the pumpkin
- Preheat the oven at 200°C.
- Clean the pumpkin from dirt and wipe dry.
- Cut into wedges. Peel away the skin and take out the seeds from each wedge.
- Cut wedges into pieces so that each piece is around 2cm thick.
- Place cut pumpkin on a baking tray and add the maple syrup, butter (cut into small pieces), and olive oil. Mix so that all the pumpkin is coated with the wet ingredients.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Check whether the pumpkin is baked. If you can easily mash one piece with a fork it is baked.
- Take the pumpkin out of the oven and leave to cool on the counter until it reaches room temperature.
Making the dough
- Add the baked cooled pumpkin to the food processor. Pulse until it is almost mushed. (Note 1)
- Add potato starch, softened butter, zest of one lemon, grated nutmeg, and the egg yolk to the mashed pumpkin.
- Pulse a couple of times until all ingredients are almost incorporated.
- Add the flour and pulse until it starts to come together. Don't overmix. Once there are no large dry patches of flour it is done. Don't worry if all the dough is not in one big lump. (Note 2)
- Dust the clean wooden surface with a little bit of flour. Take all the dough out of the food processor and onto the flour-dusted board.
- Bring the dough together into an oval shape.
Shaping the gnocchi
- Cut the dough across (along the short edge) so that each piece is around 2cm thick.
- Roll each piece into a long cylinder shape so that in diameter the cylinder is 1cm thick.
- Using a sharp knife or a dough spatula cut each rolled out cylinder into 1cm x 1cm pieces. (Note 3)
- Dust the cut pieces with some flour. Using the gnocchi board take one cut out piece and with a thumb, gently pressing downward (½ of the initial gnocchi size), roll it forward until it flips over itself. Repeat with the rest of the cut pieces. (Note 4)
- At this point, you can cook the gnocchi in the boiling salted water or freeze them.
Freezing the gnocchi
- Take two baking sheets and place parchment paper on top.
- Arrange the prepared gnocchi on the baking sheet leaving at least 1cm space between them.
- Place them in the freezer and freeze until completely firm. They will be a bit whiter once frozen.
- Take them from the freezer and scoop all the gnocchi into a freezer-safe container or a ziplock bag.
Using frozen gnocchi
- You can use the frozen gnocchi in the same way as you would the fresh ones. Just add them to the boiling water and cook them until they all start to float on the water surface. Leave for additional 10-15 seconds and scoop them out of the water and add to your desired gnocchi sauce.
NOTES
- It is important to first pulse the pumpkin so that every consecutive pulse is as short as possible. We don’t want to overmix the dough, especially once we add the flour as this will increase the chewiness of the final gnocchi.
- Here we use T00 flour which is very soft flour and generally used for pizzas and bread. Here, if not overmixed, provides for a nice soft structure of the final gnocchi.
- We want small initial gnocchi because when you shape them on the gnocchi board they will stretch a bit. Also when they are cooked they expand by almost a third.
- If you never shaped gnocchi this way don’t worry if they don’t turn out perfect. It takes some practice. Even if you skip this step it will be fine, they will still taste wonderful. If the gnocchi sticks to the gnocchi board just add a bit more flour.
