Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Gouda Cheese Sauce

The first time I heard of gnocchi, I was very intrigued.  Who wouldn't be at the thought of a pasta dumpling made from a base of potatoes?  The first time I ever tried this magical food wasn't at some Italian restaurant, but rather one night when my husband decided he wanted to try his hand at making some at home.  What was amazing about his is he just glanced at a basic recipe for the dough to see the basic ingredients and general proportions, and then he whipped up a batch of basic potato gnocchi with a sausage cream sauce to go with it.  Yeah... my husband is one awesome cook!  He's always been good at creating new recipes out of thin air and making them taste wonderful.  His palette for knowing good flavor combos really is amazing.

After this first taste, I instantly became hooked and have since ordered gnocchi any time I've seen it on the menu at a restaurant we visit.  I think the best one I've had so far was at this local Italian restaurant on the square in Dahlonega, Georgia -- it was a basic potato gnocchi with a Carbonara sauce, smothered in mozzarella.  Sinfully wonderful!

Since the invention of Pinterest, it has become much easier for me to discover appetizing sounding recipes that I would like to try.  It should be no surprise that I found this wonderful Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Gouda Cheese Sauce recipe via this widespread source of addiction.  Growing up, I never really ate sweet potatoes.  They just were not something my mom ever served.  But I have come to find that they are quite tasty.  It is amazing how a food that tastes so delicious can be so healthy for you.

I decided to make this for dinner last night, and I have to say it was mighty tasty.  One item I noted about this recipe is it calls for one pound of potato, however after cooking and then mashing up my sweet potatoes, they only equaled 1 cup, whereas the recipe calls for 1.5 cups of potato to mix with the other ingredients.  So that you do not do like I had to and reduce the remaining ingredients to 2/3 the quantity so that everything is still in proportion, I would recommend starting off with more than one pound of sweet potato.  The gnocchi itself was a little light on the sweet potato flavor (I could taste more of the nutmeg than the potato), but overall was really nice.  It definitely had a good texture to it.  And the Gouda cheese sauce was light yet flavorful.  I will definitely make this recipe again.