Sweet Potato Gnocchi & Butternut Squash Sauce

This recipe is actually pretty easy, other than being a bit time consuming hand rolling the gnocchi and cleaning up all the flour on the counter.  Here's what you do...

  For the gnocchi you'll need:

1 Can of sweet potatoes

1 Cup of flour

1/4 Cup of grated parmesan

1 Clove of garlic (diced) 

1 Egg

Directions: Mash the potatoes very well with a whisk or a potato ricer.  Add all other ingredients and mix 'til the dough just starts to come together. Don't over work the dough or your gnocchi will be tough.  Grab a small handful of dough and roll it into a long cylindrical snakelike shape. Cut the snake into 1 in. bite size pieces. Using the tines of a fork and your thumb, gently roll the bite size pieces onto a floured plate. This will take a minute to get the hang of, but when you do, it will go quickly. Here's a really good Youtube video that shows how to do it. You can make these ahead and let them rest while the sauce is cooking.

How to cook the gnocchi:

 Bring a big pot of salted water to a rapid boil, drop the gnocchi in slowly, so the water doesn't splash back up on your hand... trust me on this one. When they start to float , pull 'em out with a slotted spoon and put 'em in a bowl. 

For the sauce:

1 Jar of butternut squash pasta sauce (you can also use any kind of store bought sauce, I just prefer the flavor of this one with the sweet potatoes)

1 Apple (peeled & diced)

1 Sweet yellow onion (diced)

3 Mini sweet yellow or orange peppers (sliced thin)

5 or 6 Mushrooms (rough chop is fine)

I also added a couple of cut up (skinless) smoked sausages in the sauce for extra flavor. This is totally optional though.

Add all ingredients to a medium pot and simmer on low for about 2 hrs or 'til all the veggies are fork tender. Toss the gnocchi with the sauce 'til it's all good and covered. I like to add shredded mozzarella on top while it's steaming hot,  but that step is (technically) optional. (Go ahead and do it, I won't tell) This goes great with a nice Caesar salad and some crusty garlic bread.

 This was not the fastest or least messy meal I've ever made, but it was well worth all the effort!