Cat Santamauro preps you with specialty Thanksgiving recipes for the next three weeks. Pumpkin Gnocchi in place of Stuffing? You bet your sweet ass.

 

Pumpkin Gnocchi

For the next three weeks I am featuring some of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes. After all, Thanksgiving is a Holiday based entirely around food. . .and giving thanks. . .for food. This pumpkin gnocchi makes for a very interesting side dish that can be an alternative to stuffing or potatoes. But if you are anything like me, you can never get enough starchy sides, I would make them all. Besides, pumpkin is a vegetable right?

Ingredients:

• 1 large potato peeled cut and cooked till soft
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 Tablespoons grated Romano or Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 cups flour
• Salted water, for cooking gnocchi
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons rubbed sage sage
• 1/2 cup shaved Parmesan cheese
• 8 slices bacon
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• ¼ cup toasted pecans

Directions:

1. Cook the potato until soft and drain.
2. Force the potato through a potato ricer or sieve.
3. Let cool
4. Cut the bacon into 1 inch slices and cook in a medium pan until crispy remove from grease with slotted spoon and let drain on paper towel.
5. Stir together potato, pumpkin, egg, salt, nutmeg, Parmesan until well incorporated.
6. Stir the flour a little at a time until it forms into a dough.
7. Roll the dough into into ropes about and inch thick, slice diagonally into one inch pieces. If you want you can roll the dough on the side of a fork (which is the traditional way) but I find it doesn’t add much to the dish and is very time consuming, so I usually skip this step.
8. Add to rapidly boiling water. Cook until the gnocchi are all floating. About 3-4 minutes.
9. Remove with a slotted spoon and place in a bowl and coat with a little butter to keep them separated. Repeat until all gnocchi is cooked.
10. Heat 4 tablespoons of butter until it turns a golden color, careful not to let it burn. Add sage and cook 30 seconds more.
11. Remove from heat and add gnocchi and coat well.
12. Add nuts, Parmesan, salt, pepper, bacon and toss. Serve immediately with a wink and a ‘Prego’.

– Cat Santamauro

catFood is one girl’s mission to teach people the art of simple food with big flavor. She loves cheese, crafts, and her Kitchen-Aid mixer. She can often be found around fresh produce and curing the common cold with Matzo Ball Soup.