This easy sweet potato gnocchi recipe is pillowy, flavorful, and made with just four ingredients: sweet potato, all-purpose flour, egg, and salt.
Russet potato gnocchi is the standard gnocchi recipe made with Russet potatoes. This recipe substitutes sweet potatoes for Russet potatoes. Sweet potato gnocchi is more tender and delicate than white potato gnocchi.
Homemade Gnocchi
Homemade gnocchi is a great way to dip your feet into pasta making. It's simple and doesn't require a pasta machine. It was my first step in home pasta making! Now I make fresh lasagna sheets, fettuccine noodles, and spaghetti noodles.
Ingredients
How to Make Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Peel and chop sweet potatoes. Boil until tender. Allow the sweet potatoes to cool. Mash sweet potatoes until smooth.
On a floured working surface, add the mashed sweet potatoes and flour on top. Make a well and crack the egg inside.
Using a fork, mix the egg into the flour. Gradually incorporate the mashed sweet potatoes. Use your hands to knead the dough until smooth. The dough is a little sticky, so don't panic because this is normal. Just keep flouring the surfaces and your hands while working with the gnocchi dough.
Divide the dough into five sections.
Using your hands, roll the dough into a 1" thick rope. Cut every 1" for individual gnocchi pieces.
Indent the pasta gently with a floured fork (optional). Flour the individual gnocchi pieces so they don't stick together.
Boil water in a large pot. Cook the gnocchi in small batches (about 20 pieces) in boiling water for the best results. The gnocchi is finished when it floats to the top. Homemade potato gnocchi cooks relatively fast compared to boxed pasta.
Pasta Sauce
Serve gnocchi with ground beef spaghetti sauce, butternut squash pasta sauce, or slow cooker spaghetti sauce. I recommend homemade garlic baguette bread for a side.
📋 Recipe
Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Ingredients
- 1 lb sweet potatoes
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- extra flour for working surfaces
Instructions
- Peel, chop, and boil the sweet potatoes. Drain the sweet potatoes and allow them to cool down.
- Mash the sweet potatoes really well with a potato masher or fork. Make sure the mashed potatoes are smooth without chunks. Lay the mashed sweet potatoes on a floured surface. Top with the flour. Make a well in the flour, and add the cracked egg. Add the salt.
- Mix the egg with the flour using a fork. Mix the sweet potatoes, flour, egg, and salt using your hands.
- Make a log, and cut the dough into 5 equal sections. Roll out the section individually to form a long 1" (2.5 cm) rope. Cut every 1" (2.5 cm) to make gnocchi pieces. Optional: Flour a fork, and lightly press on top of the gnocchi pieces to form an indentation. Flour the gnocchi pieces lightly.
- In a large pot, boil water with some salt. Add about 20 to 25 gnocchi pieces into the boiling water. Remove the gnocchi with a strainer once it has floated to the surface (about 2 to 3 minutes).
- Continue cooking the gnocchi until all gnocchi pieces have been cooked. Serve with your favorite sauce of choice.
Notes
- This gnocchi dough recipe can be batch prepared and frozen. Don't cook the gnocchi that's going to be frozen. Flour the gnocchi pieces individually prior to placing it into a freezer-friendly storage bag. Store in the freezer for up to 2 months.
- This sweet potato gnocchi recipe can be reheated the following day.
Gia says
Made this for my family: the sweet potatoes had more liquid so I just added more flour. My kids asked for a second helping and cleaned their plates! Such a great recipe!
Lily Guidry says
Thanks for the comment Gia!
Amy says
Omg this is my third attempt at making gnocchi and this time I've used your tips and method and WOW !! Game changer, I've never had better texture and taste that this time around and it was so much easier and less painful . Thank you so so much
Lily says
Hi Amy thank you so much for the comment! Sweet potatoes can be soft and difficult to work with for gnocchi, so I feel your pain lol!
Kylie Archer says
Such a great gnocchi!The kids and I loved it!
Lily says
Great!
Valerie says
I LOVE gnocchi made with white potatoes and ricotta, it's one of my favorites ever to eat. I like it super simple with butter, salt and pepper. I've never had sweet potato gnocchi, it sounds easy enough to make.
Lily says
If you like white potato and ricotta gnocchi, you will LOVE this!
Michelle says
I've only tried once to make sweet potato gnocchi and it was an absolute failure! Thanks to all your excellent tips I now know exactly where I went wrong. I'm going to give it another try now that I have your recipe!
Lily says
Awesome! Yea sweet potato is a bit tricky because it's really soft. But the taste is amazing!
Jacqueline Meldrum says
I keep meaning to try making gnocchi again (my first attempt) years ago was a failure). I've read all your tips (thanks) and feel ready to have another go.
Lily says
Let me know how it turns out!
Hamad Ali says
Wow it was really easy. Nice recipe.
Shelley says
So funny that the first time you tried gnocchi was in China! But I adore it, too - and homemade gnocchi is just simply unparalleled! What a wonderful idea to use sweet potato - nutritious and fantastic flavor! I could totally see serving this as part of a Thanksgiving feast!!
Lily says
I agree! Thanksgiving has to have sweet potatoes somewhere in the mix otherwise it's not Thanksgiving