Little Pillows of Deliciousness

aka gnocchi!  This was the 3rd share in a row that we got butternut squash and sweet potatoes, and we were getting a little tired of sweet potato fries and butternut squash soup.  Well...as tired as you can get of sweet potato fries.  Let's be honest...I won't turn them down if they're sitting on a plate in front of me (especially with sriracha ketchup), but I was ready to mix things up.  So we opted for sweet potato and butternut squash gnocchi, since we had some leftover vodka sauce.

First things first: its roasting time!

We threw the butternut squash, sweet potatoes and some garlic.  Then we tossed them in the food processor to puree them up.  That wasn't working out too well for us, so we switched to an immersion blender, probably one of the best inventions ever.

From here we added some ricotta, egg yolks, melted butter, and flour.  I think our ratio of sweet potatoes to butternut squash was out of proportion, so the dough was a bit sticky, but it was nothing a little bit of flour couldn't fix.  Ok, maybe it was more than a little bit.  Once everything was pureed, mixed, and super smooth, we started kneading.  Here's where things got a little bit messy...

Here's where we had to really add the flour so it wouldn't stick to our hands or the counter.  I took my turn at kneading the dough, and we were both too much of a mess for additional pictures.  So just imagine flour all over the counter, and dough stuck to our hands.  After lots of additional flour added to the mix, we finally had the right consistency, and we could start rolling out the dough into long, thin logs, then pinched them off into pillows of deliciousness!

We let them sit in the fridge overnight to dry out a bit.  So all that was left to do last night was boil some water, heat up our vodka sauce, and make a delicious little salad to accompany the gnocchi.

They came out a little heavy and doughy...probably because we had to add so much flour.  You're probably better off with a 2:1 ratio of sweet potatoes to butternut squash.  I think we were closer to a 1:1 ratio, leaving us with really sticky dough.  As much as we'd like to make a perfect meal every time, it doesn't always happen.  Womp, womp!