Fall is the time to be cozy and cook comforting seasonal meals. This year I really wanted to embrace pumpkin—both as inspiration for decor and as an ingredient. These adorable and delicious pumpkin-shaped gnocchi fit the bill perfectly. Using both pumpkin puree along with potato, they are tender, flavorful, and light.

Paired with my favorite brown butter sage cream sauce (find the recipe here), this dish captures all the autumnal flavors. A pinch of nutmeg in the dough adds warmth reminiscent of your favorite fall baked goods. It’s easy to use a bit of twine to shape the gnocchi into little pumpkins. After cooking, use roasted pepitas to make little stems.

Pumpkin gnocchi combines all the flavors of fall into a dish perfectly suited for a cozy seasonal meal.

Pumpkin Gnocchi

Ingredients:

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 large baking potato

1 egg

1-3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

Optional: roasted pepitas for pumpkin stems

Instructions:

Bake or boil the potato until cooked through and remove the skin. Once cooled enough to handle, grate it until you have very fine shreds. In a large bowl, mix pumpkin shreds, grated potato, salt, and egg. Using a fork, add flour and mix until the dough just starts to come together. Pour out onto a floured surface and knead until dough is smooth, but don’t over mix. Shape into a rounded loaf. Cut into 4 equal pieces. Take one piece and roll into a log about 1-1/2″ thick. Start to cut pieces from the log about 1″ wide. Shape them into somewhat flattened discs and using a clean piece of twine, make evenly spaced indentations around the dough like a pumpkin. If twine sticks to the dough you can add a dusting of flour to help.

You can also make classic shaped gnocchi with some of the dough. Simply roll the log a bit thinner and cut smaller pieces. Roll each piece against a fork to create grooves for texture. While shaping all the gnocchi, start to boil a large pot of water. Once you’re ready, cook in batches for about 3-4 minutes until they float.

Serve with your favorite sauce (I use my brown butter sage cream sauce here), and if desired add pepitas to create little stems in the middle of each pumpkin gnocchi. Now admire your work & enjoy!