Sweet Potato Pasta with Sweet Cream Sauce

My daughter and I like to write recipes together. We get these ideas of flavor combinations and then work to create something that represents it. Sometimes it doesn't work out but other times, we really dig what we've created. Unfortunately, she wasn't around for the inception of this one (summer camp) but we talked through my ideas and we think we have a winner!

The original idea was to make a sweet potato ravioli, which I'm assuming isn't possible but I'm not really skilled in pasta making at all. Maybe we can still do this sometime. Anyway, I was going to fill the ravioli with a ricotta cheese mixture and then make a maple syrup cream sauce and crumble some italian sausage over it. It sounds wonderful, right?

What I found was that I could get a spiral vegetable slicer and use this to make thin and beautiful spiral sweet potato 'noodles'. They're fast and fabulous and such a great way to incorporate a healthy alternative to our menu.

Sweet Potato Pasta with Sweet Cream Sauce
Serves 6

• 3 Medium Sweet Potatoes, spiral cut 
• 1/2 C Butter or Ghee / 3-4 Tbls. Butter
• 1/2 C Flour
• 2-4 C Coconut Milk (depends on how thin you want your sauce)
• 1/4-1/2 C Maple Syrup
• Salt, to taste
• Coconut Oil
• Broccoli

• Spicy Italian Sausage, bulk or links

• 15 oz. Ricotta
• Salt, to taste
• Maple Syrup, 1 Tbls. / to taste 

1. Use spiral cutter to prepare Sweet Potatoes (this will fill a large bowl), set aside.
2. Make a roux with the butter and flour - when the flour is cooked off, add the coconut milk and mix until combined.
3. Add maple syrup and salt to taste (this mixture tastes like liquid caramel corn to me). Set aside.
4. Thaw and steam broccoli
5. Brown Italian sausage. Set aside.
6. In a small bowl, combine Ricotta with salt and maple syrup. Set aside.
7. Heat sweet potato noodles. 
1. In a large bowl or wok, heat a large pat of butter and coconut oil to liquid.
2. Working in batches, add in 1/3 to 1/4 of the sweet potato noodles (whatever will fit well). 
3. Toss them around right away so that the liquid coats as much as it can.
4. You want the noodles to stay a bit crunchy so don't let them sit too long. 
5. Remove and place in a large bowl and toss with a pinch of kosher salt.
6. Repeat with the remaining noodles.
1. Be aware that the sugars in the sweet potato will begin to adhere to the bottom of your pan a little so each batch you'll have to get a little faster moving with.
8. Plate noodles, top with a large dollop of ricotta cheese, sprinkle with broccoli and cream sauce and top with italian sausage.

Sweet Potato Pasta with Sweet Cream Sauce - I forgot to add the ricotta cheese but it was SO delicious!
Absolutely what I set out to create...