Creamy Tuscan gnocchi
Golden pan-fried gnocchi in a garlicky cream sauce with sun-dried tomatoes, spinach and parmesan, the kind of dinner that feels like a treat.
- 35 min total
- 30 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $3.21 a serving
- 730 calories
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ⅓ cup sun-dried tomatoes, drained and chopped
- 2 packages potato gnocchi, two 16-oz packages
- ½ cup vegetable broth
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 3 cups baby spinach
- ½ cup grated parmesan
From your pantry
- 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 730 calories, 16 g protein, 88 g carbs and 36 g fat, and costs about $3.21 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No baby spinach? Kale or arugula works.
- No grated parmesan? Parmesan wedge works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the garlic and the sun-dried tomatoes.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large over medium-high.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium-high heat
Add half the gnocchi in one layer and cook 6 to 8 minutes, turning, until .
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium-high heatTimer: 7 min
Dolly’s tip: Let them sit before turning. They release from the pan once a golden crust forms.Move them to a plate.
Repeat with the rest of the oil and gnocchi.
Medium-high heatTimer: 7 min
Turn the heat to medium, add the garlic and sun-dried tomatoes, and cook 1 minute, .
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min
Pour in the broth, , then stir in the cream and Italian seasoning and 3 minutes, until slightly .
Scrape up the browned bits. It means loosening the brown bits stuck to the pan with a wooden spoon, usually right after adding liquid. Those bits are concentrated flavor, and they melt into the sauce.
How you’ll know: The bottom of the pan looks clean again, and the liquid turns darker and richer.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Thicken. Thickening means cooking a sauce or soup until it’s less runny, by simmering it down or adding something like cornstarch. A thicker sauce clings to food instead of pooling on the plate.
How you’ll know: It coats the back of a spoon, and a line drawn through it with your finger holds its shape.
Medium heatTimer: 3 min
Stir in the spinach until it , then the parmesan, salt and pepper.
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Low heat
Return the gnocchi to the pan, to coat, and serve right away.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Low heat
Dolly’s tip: Serve it quickly. The crispy edges soften the longer they sit in the sauce.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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