Pumpkin Gnocchi with Brown Butter Sage Sauce

We love having gnocchi at our house. These fluffy little pillows produce really comforting meals. Refined comfort food, right? Pumpkin gnocchi is no exception. The trick with pumpkin gnocchi is that the pumpkin puree is much more wet than your traditional potato mash for potato gnocchi. You need more flour. But not too much flour as it’ll make the gnocchi dense. I like to think of it as a game. Add as little flour as possible without going crazy. Sounds fun, huh? Okay, that makes it sound like it’s really had to do. It’s not. Just do your best. The more you make gnocchi the better you get at it. You can also freeze gnocchi for later use which makes it a really easy meal for later. Another trick is that you can form the gnocchi, lay them out on a baking sheet, and put them in the fridge until you are ready to make them. This helps when you are making other foods and the gnocchi is going to be a side dish. Who says gnocchi can’t be convenient?

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 egg yolk

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp salt

1 to 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup salted butter

about 10 fresh sage leaves

1. Scoop the pumpkin puree into a medium-size mixing bowl. Stir in egg yolk, parmesan cheese, and salt

2. Slowly add in the flour to form a very soft dough. Add more flour to the outside of the dough to prevent if from sticking. Divide the dough into 4 portions.

3. On a floured surface, roll out a portion of the dough into a long snake about the thickness of your thumb. Cut into half inch pieces. If you have any problems with sticking, dust with additional flour.

4. Repeat with each of the 4 portions. At this point you can freeze the gnocchi in a single layer on a baking sheet or cook immediately. If freezing, once the gnocchis are frozen you can remove them from the baking sheet and store them in a ziploc bag.

5. To cook the gnocchi, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the gnocchi in batches. The gnocchis are done when they float to the top which should only take a 1-2 minutes (add 2  minutes for frozen gnocchi).  Drain well.

6. Melt butter in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add in sage leaves and cook until butter just turns brown.Remove from heat. Add in gnocchi and toss to coat with butter.

7. Serve hot.