Creamy Sausage Gnocchi
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our privacy policy for details.
A quick 30 min ONE POT meal! With crumbled Italian sausage, sneaked in spinach and the best tomato cream sauce ever!
New year, new you, new cream sauce. A cream sauce so heavenly with perfectly cooked potato gnocchi, crumbled Italian sausage, and sneaked in greens for those picky eaters.
This comes together fast too – 30 min from start to finish – and everything cooks in one single pot (even the uncooked gnocchi) for the easiest clean up.
Ground beef/chicken/turkey can easily be subbed for the sausage, and any kind of greens will also work if spinach is not your jam (kale, swiss chard, or even chopped broccoli florets for extra veggies all around).
Serve with crusty bread to sop up all that sauce, a light salad and a glass of red for a complete meal.
DO I HAVE TO COOK THE GNOCCHI FIRST?
Not at all! That is the beauty of this recipe – the uncooked gnocchi cooks right in that tomato saucy goodness.
WHAT GNOCCHI IS BEST HERE?
I personally love cauliflower potato gnocchi but any gnocchi of your choosing should work very well in this recipe.
WHAT KIND OF SAUSAGE IS BEST HERE?
Sweet or spicy Italian sausage are both great options. Ground beef also works beautifully here.
WHAT IS TOMATO SAUCE? IS IT THE SAME AS PASSATA?
Tomato sauce, in the US, is tomato puree typically cooked down for a thick, smooth consistency with a relatively sweet flavor. Passata is simply uncooked tomato purée. You can use passata in place of tomato sauce, but it is not a completely equal substitute.
WHAT IS HEAVY CREAM?
Heavy cream (or heavy whipping cream) has one of the highest fat contents with about 36-40% fat. Half and half or whole milk are suitable substitutes, but will yield a lighter result.
Creamy Sausage Gnocchi
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound Italian sausage, casing removed
- ½ medium sweet onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 2 cups beef stock
- 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
- 24 ounces cauliflower potato gnocchi
- 4 cups chopped baby spinach
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ¼ cup basil leaves
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add Italian sausage and onion, and cook until sausage has browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the sausage as it cooks; drain excess fat.
- Â Stir in garlic and Italian seasoning until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Gradually whisk in beef stock and tomato sauce. Stir in gnocchi. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until reduced and slightly thickened, and the gnocchi is cooked through, about 6-8 minutes.
- Stir in spinach and heavy cream until the spinach has wilted, about 1-2 minutes.
- Stir in Parmesan; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately, garnished with basil, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
I would like to have this recipe sent to my email.
Creamy Sausage Gnocchi.
Thank you
This was SO good! Very flavorful and easy to make!
Once again, your recipe is a winner! I followed the recipe exactly except for using 1/2 mild and 1/2 hot Italian sausages. At first, I thought the sauce might be a little bland, but the flavor developed and intensified while it cooked. The sauce is silky and flavorful, perfect for the delicate gnocchi – and hearty because of the sausage. Thanks for sharing!
This is, as the recipe name implies, damn delicious. The second time I made this I threw in some mushrooms I had and upped the garlic. This is quickly becoming a favorite in our house!
More recipes like this, please! It was a hit with both my husband and my toddler, AND it was fast. One pot is where it’s at!
This was soooo good! Accidentally used regular sausage, so I can’t even imagine how great it will taste when I use Italian. It was very filling and warm, and it is ACTUALLY a 30 minute meal. Winner!
Looks really good will have to try.
This dish was a huge win at our house! Only swap was potato gnocchi instead of cauliflower. I think tortellini would probably be great too. I used mild Italian sausage and was looking for a little more seasoning so simply added some red pepper flake to my serving. Next time I may add it to the entire batch. Kids are picky so I can’t use spiced Italian sausage.
If you’re on the fence with this recipe, do it!
This may be my favorite recipe of yours yet! Super easy and delicious!
This was excellent and so so easy! I used the 8oz can of sauce and also some homemade sauce I had one hand for extra flavor, did need to add a bit of tomato paste at the end but I am sure that is because I made it extra saucy! Will definitely make again!
Want to try this recipe. What brand of Cauliflower Potato Gnocchi do you recommend?
This was absolutely delicious. We used spicy Italian sausage and it was so flavorful!
Wow! Â Yum. So easy too!! Â Thank you!Â
This was so delicious. Like I couldn’t stop eating it and can’t wait to make it again. Same for my husband! Thank you!
Easy and delicious!
This recipe caught my eye because of a the gnocchi’s. It’s a big plus to not have to pre cook the gnocchi’s. I cut up chicken into small pieces. I don’t like ground meat. Taste and season as you go. It was delicious!
Saw the recipe and tried it the next day. So delicious and simple to make. Â I used spicy Italian sausage to give it some “fire” and it sure did! Â Great on these cold winter days.
I have made lots of your recipes but this one is by far number one on my list of loves! So easy, fast and delicious. Even my husband, who isn’t big on pasta loved it and said he would be very happy if he got this dish in a top notch Italian restaurant! The only thing I did differently was to use potato gnocchi because I couldn’t find the cauliflower. Honestly, I don’t know how it could have been any better. If you can find the sausage in bulk it shaves a couple minutes off the prep since you don’t have to take the skins off the individual sausages.  Keep these 5 star winners coming. I’m loving it.Â
Easy and delicious!
I used plant based sausage and loved it!
Damn delicious !! but couldn’t find the cauliflower gnocchi. had to use a potato gnocchi stuffed with burrata- was quite good!
I saw this recipe yesterday and made it today! I just happened to have all the ingredients and on this snow, cold day….it was perfect and DELISH! Next time I may add some green pepper and black beans to veg it up a bit. But we LOVED it. It as easy, quick and so tasty!
Thank you!
Thank you so much for this quick and easy recipe that goes so easily with simple side dishes! It looks so doable for a work day… I pinned it to “easy recipes” and I can’t wait to try this!
In the recipe, there is an x beside heavy cream, parmesan and basil. Not sure what that means in terms of how much to use!
Thanks!
It is 1/4 cup on each.
This looks and sounds so damn good. Great flavors. My kind of comfort food!