This time I really wanted to challenge myself, after my boyfriend’s suggestion: prepare homemade pumpkin gnocchi for a dinner with friends. Yes I had never tried to make gnocchi before - shame on me - and sounded a bit scary at first, given that I did not have that much free time on the dinner day. But after a while, fear turned into excitement, excitement to challenge myself once again with a new recipe that I knew, afterwards, would give me a lot of satisfaction.

Now, as the preparation may take a little bit of time, you may consider preparing the batch of gnocchi beforehand - which is what I did. And this is also why such preparations are a typical family activity which takes place on weekends ;)

Yield: 5-6 servings

Prep time: 1:30/2:00 hours

What you’ll need for the gnocchi:

- 1.3～1.5 kg pumpkin

- 300 g flour

- 1 egg

- salt to taste

What you’ll need for the sauce:

- 80 g butter

- sage leaves

- gorgonzola cheese

Start by cutting the pumpkin into big quarters and scoop out the seeds. Wrap them loosely with tin foil and cook in the oven for about an hour at 200°C.

You will know they are cooked when the pulp comes off very easily from the skin.

Now it’s time to mix together all the ingredients: flour, pumpkin, egg and salt. Keep kneading until all ingredients are evenly incorporated. Note: as these gnocchi are simply pumpkin-based, the dough will probably feel quite soft and sticky - it is up to you whether you want to add more flour or you want to keep it that way. Personally, I chose to add a bit more flour until the dough became a bit thicker and easier to “manoeuvre”.

Sprinkle some flour on a surface and cut the dough into chunks: roll the chunks into thinner coils and cut again into smaller pieces.

In a pot of boiling water, pour the gnocchi - they are pretty fast to cook: once they come back to the surface, wait for one more minute or so and drain them.

Tip: you can store/freeze your freshly cooked homemade gnocchi, and in order for them not to stick together, drizzle a little bit of olive oil on each layer.

Start melting the butter into a pan, add the gnocchi with some sage leaves and stir. A few minutes before ending the preparation, pour in big chunks of gorgonzola cheese and have it nicely melt onto the gnocchi.

The preparation itself is not complicated, although it can be a little time consuming. However, there is nothing more satisfying that working a dough and enjoying homemade, fresh food with flour all over your counter - and your face :)

Enjoy!