I’m a real sucker for lasagnas. I’ll make them a few times a year and always forgot how much work they can be.
Worth it? absolutely.
But still, shortcuts are nice.
But to be honest, most of the time, when I hear shortcut, I hear sacrifice.
I find it usually means skipping a ‘homemade’ step for a ‘convenience’ step. And guys, I looove me some convenience but I think we all need to admit, it’s not always worth it flavour-wise.
Except when it comes to CHEESY GNOCCHI BAKE!!!
There is zero sacrifice here. Cross my heart. I served this at a dinner party and these words left the lips of one of our guests ‘this is even better than lasagna’. Better.
I tested this recipe in a whole bunch of different ways, but I had such a hard time settling on a final version for the blog because they were all flipping amazing. What this means is, there is a ton of flexibility in the recipe.
Substitute the mushrooms and pepper for your veg of choice or anything you have kicking around in your fridge that needs to get used up STAT. Onions, spinach, zucchini, eggplant would all be excellent. You can even go veggie free. The sauce to gnocchi ratio is extremely forgiving because the gnocchi itself is so starchy that it will thicken the sauce no matter what you decide to add.
Surely, this tomato sauce is familiar to you by now. It’s a staple in both mine and Dara’s homes. This is our Simple 3 Ingredient Tomato Sauce recipe with some added basil. We’ve also used this sauce in our Eggplant Parmesan recipe. I. can’t. get. enough.
If you want to save even more time on this recipe, you can also use a good quality store bought sauce. There are lot of good ones our there.
One of my favourite sacrifice-free shortcuts in this recipe is the random dolloping of ricotta cheese over the dish rather than the messy and impossible task of spreading it evenly over lasagna noodles.And the layering process will take less than 5 minutes. Huge savings.
What will you put in your first gnocchi bake?
Erin
Cheesy Baked Gnocchi
Serves | 4-6 |
Prep time | 10 minutes |
Cook time | 45 minutes |
Total time | 55 minutes |
Ingredients
- 1 can whole tomatoes with juices (796mL)
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 Medium yellow onion (peeled and cut in half)
- 1/3 cup finely chopped fresh basil plus 1 additional sprig of leaves and stems (divided)
- 2 cups cremini mushrooms (about 225g, sliced)
- 1 bell pepper (red, yellow or orange, chopped.)
- 1.5 cups ricotta cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 2 cups grated mozzarella cheese (about 175g)
- 1 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
- 500g package of gnocchi
Note
For a quick shortcut, add your favourite store bought tomato sauce and add your sautéed veggies of choice.
Directions
1. | Pre-heat oven to 375F. In a large sauce pan over medium-high heat, combine tomatoes, butter, onion and sprig of basil and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, add mushrooms and peppers and simmer for about 30 minutes, partially covered, until vegetables are soft and tomatoes break up easily with the back of a spoon. Remove onion halves and basil leaves and discard. |
2. | Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine ricotta cheese with half of the chopped basil, salt and pepper. |
3. | In a large bot of salted boiling water, cook gnocchi per package directions. |
4. | Cover bottom of a 9"x11" baking dish with a 1/3 of the tomato sauce. Add 1/2 the gnocchi to the dish. Dollop 1/2 the ricotta cheese mixture over gnocchi, along with 1/2 the mozzarella and parmesan. Next, spoon 1/2 of the remaining tomato sauce over cheese and top with remaining gnocchi. Top gnocchi with remaining tomato sauce, followed by dollops of ricotta and remaining mozzarella and parmesan. |
5. | Bake for 15 minutes and broil for an additional 2-3 minutes until well browned and bubbly. Top with remaining chopped basil. |
[…] Cheesy Gnocchi Bake is a perfect recipe to showcase what we are all about. A simple family friendly recipe, using a mix […]