Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Maple Brown Sugar Glaze

I'm not a huge fan of sweet potatoes unless there is an additional layer of sweetness added. These have a great maple brown sugar glaze on them which takes the recipe to another level. This was the first time I had made gnocchi and it was incredibly easy to do.

Gnocchi recipe from Food 52.

Ingredients:
-1 pound or a little more, sweet potato
-1/2 cup full fat ricotta
-1 medium egg, lightly beaten
-1/2 teaspoon sea salt
-1 1/4 cup all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
-1 orange, optional

Maple Brown Sugar Glaze
-3 tablespoons maple syrup
-3 tablespoons brown sugar

Wash the sweet potatoes and score them with an X.
Bake at 400 for about 30-40 minutes or until soft.

Remove the peels from the sweet potatoes and mash until smooth.
Add the ricotta and egg.
Mix together.

Then, stir in the flour 1/4 cup at a time, just until you have a workable dough.
You want to use as little flour as possible so that your gnocchi won't be dense and chewy.
Once a dough has formed turn the dough out onto a floured surface.
Slice into four equal pieces. 

Roll each into a 1 inch thick log of dough.

Use a knife to cut the log into 1 inch pieces.
Score each with a fork. 

In a large pot of boiling water cook the gnocchi until they float to the top -- scoop them out with a slotted spoon as soon as they are floating.

To make the maple brown sugar glaze heat the maple syrup and brown sugar in a pan until melted together and hot.

Drizzle the glaze over the gnocchi.
Squeeze an orange slice over the pasta if desired and serve with orange segments. 

  

I really enjoyed this recipe. The gnocchi was very light like it should have been, it did not become dense. The maple brown sugar glaze is very sweet, but I think that it helped to tie the recipe together. The citrus element helped to cut through some of that sweetness. I really enjoyed eating a little segment of orange with the gnocchi I think it was a nice flavor combination.