Butternut Squash Gnocchi

Butternut squash and ricotta gnocchi are the perfect fall dish! The best part is that they can be made ahead, frozen, and then cooked quickly whenever a craving strikes!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 1 40

Resting Time 50

Servings people

Calories 606.52kcal

Author Pina Bresciani

Ingredients

For the gnocchi:

1 butternut squash cut in half, top and bottom cut off, and seeded
1 cup ricotta cheese drained
1 cup grated parmesan cheese plus more for serving
1 egg
½ teaspoon salt
3 cups all purpose flour flour amount varies - see notes

For the sage brown butter sauce:

½ cup butter
12 sage leaves torn into small pieces
6 slices prosciutto

Instructions

Make the butternut squash puré

Preheat oven to 400°F. On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, place butternut squash halves but side up. Roast them in the oven for 1-1.5 hours (until fork tender). Remove from oven and let cool.
Scoop out the butternut squash (remove from skin) and place in a food processor.
Puré the butternut squash until smooth. Measure out 1.5 cups of puré and if there is any left over, set aside for future use.

Make the gnocchi

Place butternut squash puré, ricotta, parmesan, egg, salt and 1.5 cups of the flour in a bowl.
Mix with your hands until dough starts to clump together.
Place mixture on to a lightly floured surface, and add more flour. Knead gently until the flour is fully incorporated and the dough is soft and smooth. (Don’t over-knead it, or the gnocchi will be tough; the dough should feel very delicate.)
Cover dough with a clean cloth and let it rest for 20 minutes.
In the mean time, line 2 baking sheets with parchment and sprinkle lightly with flour.
Return to dough. Working on a floured surface, tear off a piece of dough about the size of a large lemon. With the palms of both hands, roll the dough piece on the floured surface into a rope about ¾ inch thick.
With a sharp knife, cut the rope crosswise every ¾ inch to make roughly ¾-inch-square gnocchi. Arrange the gnocchi in a single layer on the parchment-covered baking sheets, making sure they don’t touch. Repeat until you run out of dough, reflouring the work surface as needed. When all the gnocchi have been cut and spread out on the baking sheets, sprinkle them with a little more flour.

Cook the gnocchi

Working in 2 batches, cook gnocchi in large pot of boiling salted water until tender. The gnocchi will float to the surface when cooked (about 3-4 minutes), then cook them for an additional 30 seconds. Using slotted spoon, transfer gnocchi to same parchment-lined baking sheets.

Make the butter sauce:

In a large pan, heat butter. When it starts to turn a light brown color (3-5 minutes), add the sage leaves. Let butter cook until it foams, and foam starts to recede, brown specks have formed in the butter, and butter is dark brown in color. Add prosciutto.
Add gnocchi to the butter sauce and toss until butter coats the gnocchi fully (1 minute)
Plate, top with parmesan cheese and ENJOY!

Notes

The flour amount in this recipe is an approximation. The amount will always change based on humidity, temperature etc. You should work the dough until it's light and fluffy (should feel delicate). I used 3 cups of flour total between kneading the dough, and rolling it out. About 2 cups to knead the dough and then an additional cup to roll out the gnocchi ropes.
The less flour you add to the gnocchi dough, the lighter and fluffier your gnocchi will be. It's a fine balance between adding enough flour and being able to roll out the gnocchi.
If the ricotta you're using is quite moist (I find most of them are), be sure to drain it first, or you will have to add more flour to the dough to get it to a good consistency. Drain the ricotta in a sieve over a bowl, cover the ricotta with parchment and add some weights to it (I use my large jar of salt). Let it drain for at least half an hour.
Making these gnocchi are a labor of love. So I'm providing some make-ahead tips in case you don't have the time in one day to devote to making these gnocchi:
- Roast the butternut squash and make the purée up to 3 days in advance. Store in the fridge. This will save you about 2 hours when it comes time to making the gnocchi.
- Once you've made the gnocchi, freeze them (without the sauce) by letting them freeze first in a single layer in the freezer. Once frozen, put in a plastic ziplock bag and freeze for up to 1 month.
- From frozen, cook the gnocchi in boiling water, and add them to the brown butter sauce.

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