Soft, pillowy gnocchi combine with a rich butternut squash and bourbon cream sauce to create a delicious Shavuot meal.
Butternut Bourbon Gnocchi
Ingredients:
Gnocchi:
4 lbs. russet potatoes
2 eggs
1-2 cups flour
Sauce:
2 lbs. frozen or fresh butternut squash, steamed
¾ cup heavy cream
½ cup bourbon
2 tsp kosher salt
1 Tb olive oil
2 large onions
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 red bell pepper
Instructions:
Start by peeling potatoes and placing in pot of salted water. Bring water to a boil and allow potatoes to boil until fork tender (approx. 15 minutes from when water boils). Remove potatoes when cooked. For ideal consistency, use a ricer to rice the potatoes. If you don’t have one, mash the potatoes really well until there are no lumps. While your potatoes are cooling, start your sauce.
Add the steamed squash to a blender with a little bit of the cooking liquid. Pulse a few times to puree it, then add the heavy cream, salt, and bourbon. Puree until the sauce is a smooth consistency. In a sauce pan, heat the olive oil. Add 2 onions, halved and thinly sliced. Sautee the onions until they begin to caramelize. Add garlic and thinly sliced red pepper. Once the pepper is soft, add your puree to the pan. Allow it to come to a boil then simmer to thicken and cook out the alcohol. Add crushed black pepper to taste and keep warm until gnocchi are ready.
When the potatoes are cool, add 2 eggs and a cup of flour. Mix to form a dough like consistency, adding flour if the dough is sticky. You probably won’t need the full amount, but might need to add flour to later batches as the consistency tends to change a bit as the dough sits.
Put up a pot of salted water to boil and prepare your gnocchi. I like to pan fry them after boiling for extra crisp, so I also prepare a frying pan with salted butter next to my pot.
To make your gnocchi you have 2 options:
1. Working in batches, roll a portion of the dough into a rope about a ½” thick and 10 inches long. Cut the rope into pieces about an inch long. Add them slowly to the boiling
water and cook only until they float to the top (around 2 minutes, it may be less). Make sure you’re watching them. Remove with a slotted spoon. If frying, add them carefully to your frying pan, turning gnocchi over after one minute, and frying on the other side for an additional minute. (This is extra work, but they’re much better this way). Once browned on both sides, transfer to a bowl.
2. Transfer all dough to a Ziploc bag or pipping bag. Cut off the corner and carefully squeeze over the boiling water, snipping 1 inch pieces and allowing them to drop in. Once in the water, the steps are the same. Work in batches so that they don’t stick to each other.
When the gnocchi are ready, toss with the sauce, and enjoy!
Born and raised in New York, Sabrina Gornish was a fish out of water when she became a St. Louis, MO transplant 12 years ago. Without the Kosher bakeries of the East coast to fill her birthday and general sweet tooth needs, she began to try her hand at cake decorating on her own, graduating from box mixes and canned frosting to scratch recipes and ever evolving technique. Over time, baking turned from passion to profession and grew to include custom cookies, cupcakes, cake pops and everything in between…Sweet Tooth Confections STL was born. On her Instagram, @sweettoothstl she frequently shares pictures, recipes (sweet and savory, but mostly sweet), and crafts from time to time.
