Vegan pumpkin gnocchi with a mouth-watering blue cheese sauce are all you need as temperatures drop and trees dress up in pretty colours. This is one of my favourite dish ever, I am very proud of this recipe and I hope you’ll make it straight away as autumn begins.
Gnocchi are fluffy potato dumplings, a relaxing activity to do over the weekend and so much fun to get family and friends involved. Gnocchi are very easy to make and everyone really can succeed at this recipe.
You have to keep in mind two simple rules:
- HOT STUFF: Make sure to mash the potato (an any other ingredients you want to put in, i.e. pumpkin in this case) and mix the ingredients while they are still hot: potatoes don’t mash evenly when cold and the ingredients don’t stick and mingle well together after they reach room temperature.
- FLOUR, FLOUR, FLOUR: Use plain flour and don’t go overboard with it. Remember you can always add more if necessary, but you can’t take it out if you exaggerate. Flour your work surface abundantly instead so you can easily work the sticky dough (yeah it’s totally normal the dough is sticky, not to worry). Lastly, make sure to rest your gnocchi on a very floured surface too before boiling them – they will stick to the surface otherwise, and you got to start again. I might have had to do that a couple of times…
Gnocchi have always been one of my favourite thing growing up, but we didn’t have them very often. My husband instead had them for every special occasion. During large family gatherings, all the children were summoned to the kitchen, and they would all make gnocchi together. I imagine a big table, the children could barely reach, all chatting and laughing and throwing flour at each other while happily rolling the potato dough and making tiny gnocchi…ready in two minutes in huge pots of boiling water.
I fantasise a lot about this childhood memory that is not even mine. As this is just a fantasy to me and I don’t do any of the cleaning up in my daydreams, I love this tradition of his family and hope one day to do it with my nieces and nephews too.
Sharing food together is not only about sitting at the same table but getting everyone involved in the meal prep. Giving everyone purpose and making yourself helpful. A sense of community reflected in the flavours of each component of a precious family meal. The memories of your parents and grandparents’ gestures in the kitchen that become yours in adulthood.
This recipe is dear to me as it combines lots of familiar ingredients and special memories, the ones from the past and the ones yet to make.
I hope you’ll serve them steamy hot with friends and family at a Sunday lunch after getting everyone busy and messy in the kitchen.
Vegan pumpkin gnocchi with blue cheese sauce
Course: MainsDifficulty: Medium4
servings1
hour5
minutesVegan pumpkin gnocchi with a mouth-watering blue cheese sauce are all you need as temperatures drop and trees dress up in pretty colours. This is one of my favourite dish ever, I am very proud of this recipe and I hope you’ll make it straight away as autumn begins.
Ingredients
- Gnocchi
300 g boiled Mary Pipes potatoes
500 g butternut squash
230 g plain flour (200 g for the dough, 30 g to flour the work surface and shape the gnocchi)
1/2 tsp of fine sea salt
- Sauce
400 ml milk
40 g plain flour or cornstarch
100 g gorgonzola or vegan blue cheese
4 sage leaves
4 spoons of fried onions (optional, one per serving)
Method
- Gnocchi
- Chop the butternut squash in small chunks, transfer to a big oven tray with a pinch of salt and two/three spoons of extra-virgin olive oil. Roast for 25 minutes at 180 C (fan). Alternatively, you can boil the squash for 20 minutes in salty water but carefully drain the squash as you want to get as much water out (your gnocchi will be too mushy otherwise). Mush the butternut squash when still hot using a fork or a potato masher.
- Boil the potatoes in salty water for around 20 minutes – till you can pierce them with a fork. Unpeel the potatoes when still hot (be careful, use a tea towel in case they are too hot) and mash them immediately. You can mash them with a potato masher or a fork but the best tool is a potato press so if you have it at a home, get it out, it is its time to shine!
- Now mix the mashed potatoes and butternut squash with flour and half a teaspoon of fine sea salt. Add a bit more flour if your dough is too sticky, but be careful the more flour you add the less fluffy your gnocchi will be. Form a big dough ball (this should take only 1 – 2 minutes, you don’t want to warm up the dough), cover with a tea towel and let it rest 15 minutes.
- Now cut a section out from the ball and roll a long snake with your hands on a floured surface. This operation is so much fun and I advise to get the whole household involved to make memories hehe! Cut each snake into smaller chunks – long as a thumb-nail. Look at you, you have done your first gnocco (singular of gnocchi).
- Your gnocchi are ready at this point but you can have fun by creating stripes with a fork (hold your gnocco against the prongs of the back of a fork, pressing to get an imprint. The gnocco will absorb extra sauce in this way) or making them perfectly round by turning them on the table with your palm on top. Simple, striped or round gnocchi…they will all be delicious.
- Spread them on a large floured board until required. My dear please do not forget to flour the surface – I forgot multiple times and they get sticky and glue to the surface and you have to start all over again.
- Sauce
- Make the sauce by warming up the milk with 4 sage leaves. Make a cheese roux by melting the cheese and then quickly whisking in the flour over medium heat. Pour in the milk when hot but not boiling yet. Stir quickly for around 4 minutes till the sauce thickens.
- Boil some water with a spoon of coarse sea salt in a deep pot. Drop the gnocchi in (don’t go overboard, I suggest doing 10 -15 at a time as they boil so quickly and it can get overwhelming). After around 1- 2 minutes, the gnocchi will rise to the surface again. Scoop them with a slotted spoon.
- Let’s make a fancy gnocchi plate: Add four spoons of sauce at the button, add around 20 gnocchi per plate and decorate with fried onion and sage on top. They are incredible!
Notes
- It’s essential you mash the potato and butternut squash while still hot otherwise this operation will become extremely difficult as they will become less fluffy and the ingredients won’t mix well together.
