Pillowy soft homemade Pumpkin Gnocchi, golden brown on the outside and bathed with a simple, stunning Sage Butter Sauce…. an EASY homemade gnocchi recipe, this is the stuff food dreams are made of!
Homemade Pumpkin Gnocchi
The first gnocchi I ever made turned out black. Wait – not even black. If it was black, you might get away with claiming that it’s exotic, or coloured with squid ink. Mine were grey.
I had slaved over them for hours. Made the classic way using mashed potato, I painstakingly followed every step in the lengthy recipe. I could envisage how impressed my family would be when I serenely placed the gnocchi in front of them, how they would praise me and exclaim how perfectly pillowy they were.
My vision did not come true. They were grey and they were hard. I am sure I remember my brother trying to bounce one off the table like a rubber ball.
Oh – just for clarity, this was back when I was in school. Did you think it was last week? 😉
Classic gnocchi made with potato is a recipe for more capable cooks. And while I have actually made it successfully since my first dismal effort, I’m still not always happy with the way they turn out.
Enter: the EASY way to make gnocchi. The secret? Ricotta!
Yes it really is this easy to make Pumpkin Gnocchi: just use a wooden spoon to mix mashed pumpkin, flour, parmesan, ricotta and egg, turn it out, no kneading, roll into ropes then cut.
And if you want to make your gnocchi look like what you get at restaurants, all you have to do is use a fork to press lines onto the cut side of the gnocchi. Worth the effort? I think so. It creates ridges which = more crispy golden surface + the butter sauce clings to it better.
Plus, it just looks pro, doesn’t it? 🙂
I shared a plain Ricotta Gnocchi recipe a couple of years ago. I really wanted to take the basic gnocchi up a notch so I decided to make this a pumpkin gnocchi.
I wasn’t 100% sure I could make it work, and truth be told it took quite a few batches to get it exactly right. I even dragged my mother in for recipe testing.
I am so glad we persevered though, because in all honesty, the pumpkin totally makes this gnocchi. Besides making it a beautiful bright orange colour that looks so spectacular when tinged with golden brown, it adds sweetness and moisture into the gnocchi. You can’t actually taste the pumpkin – much like you can’t actually taste potato in classic potato gnocchi – but you know it’s there. You can’t miss it!
The little trick I found that really makes a difference is to extract some moisture out of the pumpkin simply by putting in on paper towels in a colander for a few minutes. Doing this reduces the amount of flour required by almost 1/3 cup which = softer gnocchi.
As for the sauce….well, I could have gotten more creative but the fact is, Sage Butter Sauce is always my first choice for gnocchi. It’s classic, simple but luxurious, and lets the Pumpkin Gnocchi shine through.
And you don’t need stacks of butter to make a sauce for gnocchi. In fact, I think you’ll be surprised how little is required because we also add a splash of the gnocchi cooking water to create the sauce which adds volume, and thickens when mixed with the butter so it coats the gnocchi beautifully. It’s the classic Italian way to make butter sauces for gnocchi, and pasta for that matter. Not using stacks of butter or oil. You don’t want the gnocchi swimming in butter – it’s just too rich!
One more thing I remembered – THIS FREEZES GREAT. The gnocchi cooks from frozen in about 1 1/2 minutes and takes about 5 minutes to pan fry and make the sauce.
Just think – the next time you’re cooking to impress, can you imagine the reaction you’ll get if you serve them homemade gnocchi? That don’t look like grey rubber balls??? – Nagi xx
Watch how to make it
Ready to see how easy it is to make Pumpkin Gnocchi? 🙂
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Easy Pumpkin Gnocchi with Sage Butter Sauce
Ingredients
Gnocchi Dough
- 300 g /10oz fresh pumpkin , steamed or boiled then mashed or 2/3 cup canned pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup ricotta , full fat (Note 2)
- 1 1/4 cup plain flour (all purpose flour), plus more for dusting
- 1/3 cup parmesan cheese , finely grated
- 1 large egg (~50 – 55g / 2oz each)
- 1/4 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt (halve for table salt, +50% for flakes)
- Black pepper
Sage Butter Sauce:
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 50g / 3 tbsp unsalted butter (Note 3)
- 20 fresh sage leaves
To serve:
- Black pepper (and salt if needed)
- Parmesan
Instructions
Pumpkin Gnocchi
- Drain pumpkin – Line a colander with 4 sheets of paper towel. Spread the fresh mashed pumpkin or canned puree onto the paper towel (see photo in post) then leave for 5 minutes.
- Measure out 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree (scale up if you scaled recipe, Note 6).
- Make dough – Place pumpkin and remaining Gnocchi ingredients in a bowl. Use a wooden spoon to mix well – it should be a soft dough. (Note 4)
- Form log and cut – Dust a work surface with flour, tip dough out, sprinkle with flour then pat into log shape. Don't knead, it's sticky inside, the idea here is to avoid touching the inside of the gnocchi. Cut into 6 pieces. Roll each into 1.7cm / 0.7" thick ropes, then cut into squares (Note 5). Optional: Use a fork to press down lightly on the cut side of the gnocchi, for traditional gnocchi look.
Cooking
- Cook 1 minute – Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Scrape gnocchi onto parchment paper, then tip into water. Cook for 1 minute or until all the gnocchi rises to the surface (means it is cooked), then drain.
- Toast gnocchi – Meanwhile, melt about 1 teaspoon of the butter plus oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add gnocchi and cook, shaking the pan, until the gnocchi is just starting to turn brown (about 1 1/2 minutes).
- Make sauce – Add remaining butter, once it melts, add sage leaves. Stir and cook for 2 1/2 minutes or until gnocchi is golden, sage is crisp and butter is slightly browned. Add salt if you used unsalted butter.
- Serve immediately, garnished with parmesan and pepper.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
More Gnocchi and Gnocchi-type things
Life of Dozer
Post Pumpkin Gnocchi snack nap. Same colour as the gnocchi!😆
I couldn’t get safe fresh so I put ground sage right in the dough.just a pinch👍🏼Also added porcini mushrooms to the butter 😊
This was for dinner yesterday and it was delicious. Thanks!
Thank you! This was absolutely delicious!!!’
I made this today and it was so good. Next time, gonna add a bit more salt. Thanks, Nagi!
Hi Nagi
I’m currently trying to figure out what kind of ricotta to get and I’m horribly confused. I’ll probably end up using what the recipe specifies, which is soft, spreadable ricotta, but then it also says firm. And in the comment section, you directly say something that another commenter pointed out. I’ll copy and paste that section of her comment.
“Woolies and Coles in Australia sell the firm ricotta over the deli – it is best to purchase one of the tubs in the refrigerator section.”
However in Jan 2022 you added a comment in response to a reviewer – “You need the good ricotta from delis that is sold in a basket so the liquid drains off. The grocery store tubs won’t work well.”
The recipe says to use the refrigerator tubs and avoid the deli ricotta while the comment says the opposite.
I am very confused by the ingredients list and step 2. The ingredients list 300g/10oz of pumpkin puree which is more than a cup. The second step says to use only half a cup of pumpkin? Please help me understand what quantity of pumpkin is appropriate for the rest of the recipe ingredients as written.
I am a bit confused…do you use the ricotta in both scenarios…fresh pumpkin or canned pumpkin puree?
I’ve been looking for a pumpkin gnocchi recipe ever since I gave away my Modern Italian Cooking by Biba Caggiano. This recipe is even easier, and will be a part of my fall ritual from now on. Happy Halloween from Austria!
Are you using a specific type of pumpkin? There are a lot of different textures to look for
These turned out quite nicely. I used canned pumpkin and the dough was quite sticky and wet. Definitely more flour needed. They also needed a fair bit more salt- the 1/4tsp is very lean – especially if you use unsalted as the sage butter. These deserve another trial but they are a nice variation on basic potato gnocchi’s.
It would be great if you could amend the metric values in all the recipes where these are missing/incomplete. We never use cups in Europe and it is very annoying to be stuffing ricotta or parmesan into a cup measure and then scraping it out of it, besides it is very inaccurate in many ingredients compare to weighing. thanks a lot!
Totally agree, I am not sure how they measure things always in volumes…
Perhaps ask her to cook it for you as well?
Low your recipes! But what would make the experience of using your website better is that if the metric measurements actually did provide amounts in g and ml, but they are still showing “cups” for many items. 😞
Easy and delicious !. Instructions were clear and simple to follow with the notes adding great tips ! Will make it again !
A wonderful recipe and will make again. Added mushrooms in the brown butter sauce. The only thing is I doubled the recipe so I could have leftovers and four adults and child devoured it all in one go!
Oh Nagi I’m such a fan and I love your recipes. (And if I lived in Australia instead of Canada I’d apply to be your assistant!) … but this recipe did NOT work for me. I followed it to the letter, using the scaling tool. It was much MUCH too wet. The ricotta was dry and didn’t have much moisture in it, and I let the roasted squash rest on paper towels before mashing as you suggested. But after adding 1.5 cups of flour over and above what was called for in the recipe and the dough was still sticky and unworkable, I gave up.
Perhaps it’s different Canadian ingredients? Anyway it didn’t work for me. I’ll continue to love the other recipes.
Do you know if this can be made with almond flour instead of all purpose flour? If not, can I use “00” flour?
Hi, is it possible to make sweet potato gnocchi with this recipe and substitute the pumpkin for it?
Hello Naji can you please confirm,-you say in your notes to use the spreadable ricotta not from the deli in the basket however you responded to someones comment lower to use the ricotta in a basket in the deli? Would love to know before I buy ingredients
My dough was very wet & would not form a dough. What did I do wrong? I followed the recipe exactly.
Hi Nagi
I’m from Poland and I’m not familiar with cups. Could you please tell me how many grams is in one cup? Thank you 🙂