Sausage and gnocchi skillet
Soft pillows of gnocchi cooked right in a garlicky sausage tomato sauce, then blanketed in melted mozzarella, all in one pan.
- 40 min total
- 30 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $3.44 a serving
- 780 calories
- Good the next day
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1 lb Italian sausage, mild, casings removed
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 can crushed tomatoes, 28 oz
- 1 lb potato gnocchi, shelf-stable, 1 package
- 3 oz baby spinach, about 3 big handfuls
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella
- 2 tbsp fresh basil, torn (optional)
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- ½ tsp salt
Each serving has about 780 calories, 32 g protein, 62 g carbs and 46 g fat, and costs about $3.44 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No crushed tomatoes? Diced tomatoes work.
- No baby spinach? Kale or arugula works.
- No shredded mozzarella? Provolone slices work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the onion and the garlic so they’re ready before the pan gets hot.
Dice. Dicing means cutting food into small, even cubes, usually a quarter to half an inch across. Pieces the same size cook at the same speed, so nothing burns while the rest catches up.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are little cubes about the size of a chickpea, and they all look close to the same.
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 that has a lid over medium-high. Squeeze the sausage out of its casings into the pan and break it into small pieces with a wooden spoon.
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
Dolly’s tip: Snip the tip of each link with scissors and push the meat out from the other end. It comes right out.Cook 6 to 8 minutes, stirring every minute or two, until the sausage is all over with no pink left.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium-high heatTimer: 7 min
Food safety: Raw pork sausage is done at 160°F and raw chicken or turkey sausage at 165°F. Precooked sausage just needs heating until hot all the way through.
Add the onion and cook 3 to 4 minutes, until soft, then stir in the garlic for 30 seconds, .
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: 4 min
Pour in the crushed tomatoes, water, Italian seasoning and salt, and bring it .
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.
Medium-high heat
Stir in the gnocchi straight from the package, cover, and 6 to 8 minutes, stirring halfway, until the gnocchi are plump and soft all the way through.
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.
Medium heatTimer: 7 min
Dolly’s tip: The gnocchi cook in the sauce, no boiling needed. If it gets thick before they’re soft, stir in a splash of water.Stir in the spinach a handful at a time until it .
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.
Medium heat
Scatter the mozzarella over the top, turn off the heat, cover, and let it sit 3 minutes, until the cheese has .
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Timer: 3 min
Scoop into bowls and top with the basil.
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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