Pumpkin gnocchi: a colourful and very tasty first course

The perfect recipe for autumn Sundays

Pumpkin is widely used in Italian cuisine: pumpkin cake, baked pumpkin, pumpkin risotto… Today introduce you Gnocchi di Zucca (Pumpkin gnocchi), a variation of traditional gnocchi. The perfect handmade first course for your autumn Sundays, to share with your family. The dough is based on a few simple ingredients such as flour and pumpkin. The perfect seasoning for this dish is butter and sage.

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Un post condiviso da Gaia Foodblogger (@gaia_thegreenpantry)

Pumpkin Gnocchi and its history

As we all know, Gnocchi is a typical and traditional Italian dish known all over the world. In the years we had a lot of variants which added different ingredients to the compound. Let’s discover together something about Pumpkin Gnocchi. They are a typical product of Mantua’s cuisine. It is said that as early as the 17th century, the Duke of Mantua’s chef, who was originally from Bologna, prepared delicious gnocchi with the local pumpkin. It would seem, however, that gnocchi was known throughout Italy much earlier and that they were an excellent dish for all social classes (thanks to the cheap ingredients and the speed with which they were prepared) to unite people around the table.

THE TRADITIONAL RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

500 g pumpkin
350 g red potatoes
150 g plain flour
50 g potato starch
1 egg
3 g salt
1 pinch of pepper
1 pinch of nutmeg
butter
sage

To prepare Pumpkin Gnocchi let’s start with the potatoes. Put them into a pot with salt water and cook them for 30-40 minutes (from when the water starts boiling). Meanwhile, peel the pumpkin: slice it, remove the peel and the seeds. Put the slices on a baking tray (covered with a baking paper) and cook them in the oven (200° preheated) for 15-20 minutes. After this time the pumpkin will be cooked and also the potatoes. Remove the peel from the potatoes and start kneading the ingredients.

Sieve the flour on the table and create the classic fountain shape. Place the potatoes and mix with the flour, seasoning with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. At this point, add also the pumpkin. Knead the dough with your hands and then add the egg. Give to the dough a ball shape and cover it with potato starch, knead again and leave it to rest for 10 minutes covered with a cloth.

After the resting time, take the dough, dust the table with flour and take a small piece of it. Shape the dough into a stick and cut it into small pieces. Repeat the process until the dough has been used up. Pass the gnocchi one by one with a fork or with a gnocchi ruler to give them the classic striped pattern on the surface.

Cook them in boiling water and when they rise up to the surface pick them up with a skimmer, drain them well, and there you are your delicious Pumpkin Gnocchi. For the seasoning melt the butter into a pan and add the sage.

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Un post condiviso da Wanda e Daniele @aghiditimo (@aghiditimo)

Cover photo by Moira Nazzari from Pixabay