This creamy, lemony sweet potato gnocchi tastes as good as it looks.

Recipe Kane Pollard | Styling Natalie Homan | Photography Brendan Homan

Sweet potato gnocchi with fresh ricotta, lemon and whey sauce
serves 4

for ricotta
1 litre milk
1 tsp salt
50ml lemon juice

Bring milk and salt up to a light simmer, stirring to make sure it doesn’t scold. Switch off heat, add lemon juice and stir until curds are completely split from whey.  Allow to sit for
10 minutes off heat to rest and finish curdling. Ladle curds out into cloth-lined strainer, saving the whey for later.

for lemon and whey sauce
leftover whey (approximately 800ml)
20g lemon juice
100g butter, chilled and diced

In a pan on a medium-to-high heat, reduce strained whey down to about 100ml. Add lemon juice and bring back up to a simmer. Remove pan from heat and stir in cubed butter,
1 knob at a time, until all incorporated. Season with flake salt and cracked pepper.

for gnocchi
500g sweet potatoes, sliced into 1cm thick circles
120g plain flour, plus a little extra for dusting
50ml olive oil, plus a little extra for cooking and to prevent gnocchi from sticking
1 tsp flake salt

Pre-heat oven to 190 degrees, and set up a salted pot of simmering water. Place sweet potato slices on a lined baking tray and brush each side with olive oil. Season and bake for
20 minutes or until tender. Allow to cool to room temperature. Mash cooked sweet potato well with fork or puree in a food processor. Add flour to puree, bringing together with a spatula to form a dough. Working in 3 batches, place dough onto a well-floured surface and roll into thumb thickness sausages. Use a flour-dipped knife to cut into 1-inch pieces, gently pinching the pillows as you pick them up before dropping them into the simmering water. Once they float to the top, give them 5 more seconds before pulling them out with a slotted spoon into a colander. Once all out, place a heavy-based pan on a medium heat. Add about 25ml of olive oil and cook the gnocchi until crunchy on the outside, soft and pillowy in the middle.

Season and serve.

 

This article first appeared in the May 2023 issue of SALIFE magazine.