COOK: Pumpkin Gnocchi with Sage Brown Butter

Pumpkin Gnocchi Ingredients

Pumpkin:

Use a 15 oz can of pumpkin puree, or the same volume of roasted and pureed pie pumpkin or butternut squash. Make sure you use plain canned pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie mix.

If you use roasted squash, you may need to adjust the quantity of flour, since it will vary more in moisture content than the canned puree, which is fairly consistent.

Flour:

Use regular or unbleached all purpose flour for this pumpkin gnocchi recipe. The dough will be soft and sticky, but avoid adding more flour to make a stiffer dough. Flour your work surface and hands generously with additional all purpose flour when you shape the gnocchi to avoid sticking.

Egg:

Use one whole large egg and one egg yolk. These help the gnocchi stick together, and add a dense, chewy mouthfeel and a bit of protein.

If you have any firm salt-cured egg yolks on hand, you can grate some on top of the gnocchi instead of, or in addition to, the Parmesan cheese to add a bit of umami.

Seasoning:

The pumpkin gnocchi are lightly seasoned with a few tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese, kosher salt, pepper, and nutmeg. If you use a finely ground salt instead of the flaky kosher salt, you will want to use slightly less.

If you have white pepper, that will avoid having dark specks in your gnocchi, but either white or black will do. Use freshly grated pepper and nutmeg if you can… both have a much fresher, more complex flavor than the dusty stuff that’s been sitting around in your spice cabinet.

Sage Brown Butter Sauce:

This sauce is total simplicity, and useful for many simple pasta dishes. Plenty of butter is melted and cooked until foamy and just beginning to brown, then fresh sage leaves are fried in the butter until just crisp, and then set aside to finish the dish.

The sage infuses the butter with the herb flavor, and makes a crunchy garnish when crumbled over the top of the finished dish. If you like garlic, you can add a clove of crushed minced garlic to the brown sage butter before adding the boiled gnocchi.

The sage butter is emulsified with a splash of the salted pasta water from the cooked gnocchi, which has lots of starch. You can add a squeeze of lemon juice or a few tablespoons of dry white wine or dry vermouth to add brightness and a bit of acidity, or leave that out and lean into the buttery richness of the dish.

The boiled gnocchi is tossed with the butter sauce, and then garnished with grated Parmesan cheese and crumbled fried sage leaves. If you have salted egg yolks, you can grate a bit of those on top instead of or in addition to the cheese.

How to Make Pumpkin Gnocchi & Sage Butter

mix gnocchi dough:

• Mix the dry ingredients (flour, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and nutmeg) together well in a large mixing bowl.
• Add in the can of pumpkin puree, the whole egg and the egg yolk to the bowl, and use a fork to mix the pumpkin and egg together in the center of the bowl.
• Fold the flour into the egg and pumpkin, and stir to mix together into a wet, sticky dough.
• Let the dough rest for a few minutes while you ready a pot of salted water on the stove, and prepare a work surface.
• Rinse the sprigs of fresh sage leaves, shake any excess water off, and pat them dry with a clean tea towel. Set aside to dry.

shape gnocchi:

• Clean and flour a large cutting board or work surface.
• Divide the dough into about six portions, and one at a time, roll each out into a long 1″ thick snake on a well-floured board.
• Use a paring knife or sharp pastry cutter to cut the dough off in bite-sized pieces.
• Roll each piece against a floured fork or gnocchi board if you’d like, to leave grooves on the side of each of the gnocchi.
• Transfer the pieces to a floured sheet pan and let them rest in a single layer.
• You can prepare these up to a day or two ahead, well-wrapped on the sheet pan in the refrigerator.

cook sage brown butter:

• Pick the washed and dried sage leaves individually from their stems.
• Heat the butter in a skillet on medium-low heat until it melts and just begins to foam.
• Drop the sage leaves into the butter, reduce the heat to low, and cook until they are bright green and fried crisp. They will not be crispy until you remove them from the fat and let them cool, so check them early until you get a feel for them.
• Use a slotted spoon, chopsticks, or a fish spatula to set the sage leaves aside on a small plate.
• If you are adding minced garlic, white wine or lemon juice, you can whisk that into the brown butter sauce just after taking out the sage leaves and before turning off the heat.
• Move the pan off the heat but keep it warm while you cook the gnocchi.

boil gnocchi:

• Drop the gnocchi into the pot of boiling salted water and cook them until they are al dente.
• This will take 6-9 minutes or so. The gnocchi will float freely when they are done, though I let them simmer for a minute or two longer after they float.
• Fish out the cooked gnocchi with a slotted spoon or strainer and transfer them to the skillet with the butter sauce.

toss gnocchi with sauce:

• Heat the pan over medium-low heat and saute the boiled gnocchi in the sage butter.
• Ladle in a bit of the cooking water and stir or toss the gnocchi to coat with the butter sauce.

garnish & serve gnocchi:

• You can crumble some of the sage into the pan, or reserve all of it to garnish the gnocchi after plating them.
• Dish the gnocchi into warmed plates, spoon any remaining sage butter sauce over the top, and garnish with whole or crumbled fried sage leaves.
• Top the bowls of pumpkin gnocchi with grated Parmesan cheese, freshly grated pepper, a drizzle of truffle oil, or grated salt-cured egg yolk.