Crispy garlic parmesan gnocchi with spinach
Pan-fried gnocchi tossed in garlic butter with wilted spinach and a big handful of parmesan, crispy, buttery and ready in 20 minutes.
- 20 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 2
- About $2.97 a serving
- 620 calories
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 package potato gnocchi, 16 oz
- 2 tbsp butter
- 3 cups baby spinach
- ⅓ cup grated parmesan
- ½ lemon, cut into wedges (optional)
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 620 calories, 16 g protein, 85 g carbs and 25 g fat, and costs about $2.97 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No butter? Ghee works.
- No baby spinach? Kale or arugula works.
- No grated parmesan? Parmesan wedge works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the garlic.
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.
Heat the oil in a large over medium-high. Add the gnocchi in one layer and cook 6 to 8 minutes, turning now and then, until and crisp.
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.
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: Straight from the package, no boiling. Break apart any that are stuck together so each one gets crispy.Turn the heat to low, add the butter and garlic, and stir for 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.
Low heatTimer: 1 min
Dolly’s tip: Garlic burns fast in a hot pan, so turn the heat down first.Add the spinach and until it , about 1 minute.
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.
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 heatTimer: 1 min
Take it off the heat, with the parmesan and pepper, and serve with lemon wedges.
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.
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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30-minute dinners ›Vegetarian dinners ›What to make with spinach and parmesan ›What to make with potato gnocchi and parmesan ›