Creamy Sausage Gnocchi - One-Pan, 30-Minute Meal (2024)

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Creamy sausage gnocchi is a simple 30-minute, one-pan recipe that tastes like a dish from a fine dining restaurant! The recipe features basic ingredients found in most pantries, including the basic tomato sauce for pasta, spinach, and Italian sausage.

Creamy sausage gnocchi - main ingredients:

This one-pan meal combines creamy tomato sauce with spicy Italian sausage, garlic, spinach, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes. The recipe uses basic ingredients such as store-bought gnocchi and tomato pasta sauce.

• Gnocchi. I used store-bought potato gnocchi, Delallo brand, made with 85% potatoes.
• Sausage. Crumbled spicy Italian sausage works the best. You can also use Italian sausage links (casings removed, sausage links sliced). Or, use mild or sweet Italian sausage - and add some spice to it!
• Tomato sauce for pasta. Use your favorite tomato sauce - it can be a store-bought pasta sauce or marinara sauce. Any flavor will work: traditional, tomato basil, arrabbiata, or garlic tomato sauce.
• Greens. I use fresh spinach to add some veggies to this recipe. You can also use frozen spinach - thawed and drained of any liquid. Or, use kale instead.

Why make this recipe?

Sausage gnocchi is a simple and quick dinner (only 30 minutes of your time!) which makes it a perfect choice to make on a busy weeknight. This dish is so comforting, creamy, and flavorful - it will become your new favorite comfort food! Another thing I love about this one-pan meal is that for such a small amount of effort you get a beautiful dish that tastes and looks like an entree from a high-end restaurant! I do hope you give this recipe a try and let me know in the comments if you liked it!

If you like sausage pasta recipes, be sure to check out this delicious sausage tortellini soup with spinach or this popular recipe on my site: skillet mac and cheese with sausage and bell peppers

One-pan 30-minute meal

In this recipe, everything is cooked in one skillet: sausage, spinach, tomato cream sauce, and even gnocchi! The clean-up after dinner is minimal - only 1 cooking dish to clean! Because of the simplicity of this recipe and how tasty it is, this recipe might become one of your family's favorite weeknight dinners!

What type of gnocchi to use?

I used potato gnocchi, a Delallo brand, made with 85% potatoes. They work beautifully in this recipe.

Do you need to pre-cook the gnocchi?

You don't need to pre-cook the gnocchi for this recipe. Just add the uncooked gnocchi directly to the sauce (heavy cream + chicken broth). The gnocchi will cook in the same pan with the sauce and the sausage. This saves you one more pan to clean and minimizes the cleanup. Also, as you cook the gnocchi in the sauce, the starch from gnocchi is released which helps to thicken the sauce. What you have in the end is the sauce of a very nice, thick consistency. I use heavy cream in this recipe, but half-and-half can be used instead.

What type of sausage to use with gnocchi?

• Crumbled Italian sausage. I used 15 oz of crumbled spicy Italian sausage. I love spicy sausage, and because it is used with pasta, the spiciness of the final dish is actually pretty mild overall since the sausage is mixed with gnocchi, the tomato cream sauce, etc.
• Italian sausage links. You can also use Italian sausage in casings. I would remove the casings and slice the sausage.
• Sweet or mild Italian sausage. You can also use sweet or mild Italian sausage - in this case, I do recommend adding some spice, such as red pepper flakes.

Storage and reheating tips

Because the sauce is made only with heavy cream, chicken broth, tomato pasta sauce, and without any cheese, this recipe is very easy to store and reheat. You can also easily make this ahead.

• Fridge. Store creamy sausage gnocchi in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
• Freezer. Freeze it in an airtight container for up to 2 months.
• Reheat in the microwave oven. Reheat the refrigerated sausage gnocchi in a microwave oven for about 1 minute. Taste and reheat for 30 seconds more, if needed.
• Reheat on the stovetop. Reheat this dish in a large, high-sided skillet on the stovetop on low-medium heat. When using this method, add a small amount of heavy cream, or half-and-half, or milk to thin out the sauce when reheating.

What to serve with sausage gnocchi

• Bread. Serve this easy recipe with something equally simple, such as a slice of store-bought, warm Italian bread, garlic bread, or olive bread loaf. Breadsticks are great, too!
• Simple salad. Because the sausage gnocchi dish is made with a rich and luscious cream sauce, a fresh salad is a great choice. I would suggest a basic spinach or arugula salad, probably sprinkled with toasted nuts, a small amount of shredded Parmesan or crumbled goat cheese, and dressed with your favorite salad dressing!

Other creamy sausage pasta recipes you might like

• Creamy Butternut Squash Pasta with Sausage and Spinach
• Creamy Mozzarella Pasta with Smoked Sausage
• Creamy Sausage Tortellini with Spinach, Tomatoes and Mozzarella cheese sauce