Ever since I made my first great batch of gnocchi, I have been trying to develop a sweet potato variation, but baked sweet potatoes are so much wetter and stickier than potatoes that it has been a struggle.

The ratio for my regular gnocchi is:
4 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes
2 large eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 cup grated cheese

Simply substituting sweet potato for Yukon Gold yielded nothing recognizable as gnocchi.

Substituting sweet potato for half the Yukon Gold was a step in the right direction, but required 4 times as much flour to achieve the same dough consistency, which yielded extremely dense dumplings.

I did a little research and found recipes that used comparably large amounts of flour, but were critiqued for their brick-like density and I feel strongly that gnocchi should be light and fluffy. Other recipes used as much flour but added other moist ingredients such as ricotta, a direction I did not want to take.

I found one recipe that used less flour and rather than rolling the dough it instructed the cook to put the dough into a pastry bag and squeeze it into the boiling water. Last week I attempted this with the ratio listed above (but half of the potatoes were sweet potatoes and the other half was russets) and the result was delicious and light but did not hold together well. When fried, they resembled sweet potato pancakes but the inside was still the consistency of mashed potatoes.

For last night’s batch, I doubled the flour and once boiled, they were precisely the consistency and flavor I desired. Oddly, when fried, the middle again became a bit looser, nearly as much like mashed potato as pasta in texture, but I think this is as close to perfect as I have the patience to reach, so I will post the recipe now.

Serves 4 (I think).

1 small pie pumpkin (2-3 pounds)
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
2 shallots
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 splash dark beer (optional)
2 cups chicken broth (boxed broth is preferable to canned and vegetable broth can be substituted for a vegetarian recipe)
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon basil
½ teaspoon thyme
1 bay leaf
1 cup heavy cream

Note: The pumpkin weight and herb measurements are guestimates, and I may have used one cup of broth equivalent instead of two in my initial trial, but I can’t be sure. I’ll update this next time I make it, but either way should yield good results.

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Hack the pumpkin into 8ths like longitude lines on a globe and remove the fibrous/seedy part with a spoon. Slice off the shell and cut into 1 inch cubes. Place in a covered baking dish with 1/4 inch water and drizzle with maple syrup. Cook until easily squished with a fork, about 20 minutes.

3. Cut carrot into 1/2 inch lengths and pulse in food processor (approximately five 1-second pulses). Cut celery into half-inch lengths, peel and quarter the shallots and add both to food processor for another five one-second pulses.

4. Heat 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat in a large, heavy bottom saucepan. Once the butter stops foaming, add the vegetables from the food processor and sauté, seasoning with salt and pepper and stirring occasionally until soft. If the pan gets a little dry, add a splash of beer rather than more butter.

5. Add broth, rosemary, basil, thyme and bay leaf to pan and bring to a boil.

6. Pour off any remaining liquid from baking dish and add pumpkin to simmering soup, mashing gently with a fork or something.

7. Simmer 5 minutes, add cream and remaining butter. Remove from heat as soon as soup returns to boil.

8. Discard bay leaf, pour soup into food processor and pulse until combined and visibly chunk-free, but some texture and bite remains.

9. Pour into four bowls and garnish with sour cream and fresh basil or parsley or something.

10. Serve immediately with crusty bread or croutons.

I was chatting up my new roommate over beers in the kitchen, and without really thinking, I grabbed a chef knife from its magnetic wall-mount and chopped into eighths the little organic pie pumpkin I had picked up on a whim. I mused, “What I am going to do with this pumpkin?” and my roommate offered only “I love pumpkin seeds!” before she scuttled off to get ready for a date and I continued to ponder the pumpkin as I scooped the gunk from the slices and separated the seeds.

I roasted the seeds on an oiled baking pan with a quick shot of olive oil-flavored cooking spray, sea salt and Garam Masala spice mix (cinnamon, cumin, cloves, nutmeg and cardamom) which I added at the half-way shake, as it tends to scorch. Toasty and tasty! Lindsay, if you are reading this, there is a bowl of seeds for you on “the white thing” by the stove (she’ll know where I mean).

Still unsure of what to make with it, I tossed the pumpkin into the oven in a covered Pyrex dish with a half inch of water and some maple syrup and put it in the oven while I looked around the kitchen. It was a cool night so I decided on soup. I had a carrot, celery and shallots left over from a gravy experiment and I was hoping to find a box of broth or some stock in the freezer, but there was none. Always the innovator, I decided to substitute a bullion cube and a Knorr Herbes de Provence cube that a friend picked up in France and left for me when she moved to Switzerland.

I minced the veggies and sautéed them in a stir-fry pan with butter, salt, pepper and eventually a splash of my 4^th beer. Once everything was soft, I added water and the cubes and while it worked its way up to a boil, I sliced the pumpkin flesh from its shell, diced it quickly and added it to the simmering soup. When everything seemed well integrated, I added heavy cream, finished it with a dollop of butter and pulled the whole thing off the stove about a minute after it returned to boiling. Everything went into the food processor (where I should have started it with those veggies) and I pulsed it until the chunks were gone, but the bisque still had some texture.

Results: Nearly amazing. The texture was ideal and while the cubes were crucial to the flavor, since I didn’t have broth or know how to season it, I didn’t consider the overall salt content, so the end result was delicious except for an overpowering saltiness.