Baked Gnocchi with Vodka Sauce! Seriously cozy, seriously addicting. Pillowy-tender gnocchi tossed with an easy five-ingredient vodka sauce, baked under a layer of mozzarella, parmesan, and basil.
Ridiculous Baked Gnocchi with Vodka Sauce
Featured comment
GREAT kid-friendly, and super quick weeknight recipe. The whole family loved it and will go into our regular repertoire!
luu
This recipe is sponsored by DeLallo
The gnocchi alone – those pillowy tender dumpling-like bites of potato and cheese – is enough to make you go back for seconds. But toss those little gnocch-lettes (just let me) with a life-changingly easy, 5-ingredient vodka sauce, and broil it up with some fresh Mozzarella cheese, all under a little magic dusting of Parmesan, and you are now in Ridiculous territory.
Ridiculous in a good way. Like, ridiculous in the “Wow, this is so intensely cozy, savory, and creamy and yet I cannot stop eating it” kind of way.
This recipe is like guests on a Tuesday night, meets sweatpants casual, meets Christmas dinner. It’s mega winter-weather cozy with equal sides of fancy and down-to-earth.
AND IT IS SO GOOD.
Here’s the thing: you could 100% make your gnocchi from scratch.
Another idea, though? You could get 75% of the way to “homemade” while also not requiring a lot of hours of advance gnocchi rep.
I’ll be choosing option B for the foreseeable future, thanks to the new DeLallo Gnocchi Kits. They are high-quality, Italian-made, and easy, and they are LIFE.
We always do our dinner club on a busy weeknight (like, no time to prep), and since our dinner club has a large appetite for gnocchi, I am stocking up.
This is the one-way ticket for very low stress gnocchi that is both fast and homemade-ish.
Final word of wisdom here: as wonderful as it is to dive headfirst into a pillowy soft bowl of this vodka-sauced goodness (and trust me, it is wonderful), the richness of the gnocchi and sauce will all be balanced beautifully with some kind of crisp veggie as a side. Personally recommend roasted broccoli, sautéed kale, or a crisp and tangy green salad.
Wow-ee. This is a ridiculously yummy wintertime baked gnocchi treasure.
Check Out Our Video For How To Make Baked Gnocchi:
Ridiculous Baked Gnocchi with Vodka Sauce
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Description
Baked Gnocchi with Vodka Sauce! Seriously cozy, seriously addicting. Pillowy-tender gnocchi tossed with an easy five-ingredient vodka sauce, baked under a layer of mozzarella, parmesan, and basil.
Ingredients
Scale
Vodka Sauce:
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 cloves garlic, grated, minced, or very thinly sliced
- 6 ounces tomato paste
- 1/4 cup vodka
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup chicken broth or water
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt (more to taste)
Gnocchi:
- 2 DeLallo Gnocchi Kits
- 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese balls
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- fresh parsley or basil
Instructions
- Vodka Sauce: Heat butter in a large oven-safe pan over medium low heat. Add garlic; sauté for 5 minutes until soft (don’t brown it). Add tomato paste; sauté for 1-2 minutes. Add vodka; sauté for 1-2 minutes. Add cream, broth, and salt. Bring to a low simmer until the sauce coats the back of a spoon and tastes delicious. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Gnocchi: Prep the gnocchi according to package directions. Add to the sauce in the pan, and stir gently to combine.
- Bake: Preheat the oven to the broil setting (500 degrees). Arrange mozzarella balls over the top. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan. Bake for 5-8 minutes until very browned and slightly crisped on top. Sprinkle with parsley or basil leaves and serve with a crisp green salad because DANG this is creamy, cozy, and ridiculous.
Notes
For proper golden-browning, be sure to use GRATED Parmesan cheese, not shredded. Grated looks like a thick powder, like the stuff many of us know in the green can (but I would advise buying better than that if you can). If all you have is shredded Parmesan cheese, a quick run through the food processor will help get the texture where you want it to be.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Italian
Keywords: baked gnocchi, vodka sauce, gnocchi with vodka sauce
Thank you to DeLallo for sponsoring this recipe!
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our easy Italian-inspired recipes page. Check it out!
Filed Under: 5 Ingredients All Recipes Casserole Dinner Dutch Oven Fall Main Dishes Pasta Quick and Easy Recipes Sugar-Free Tomato Vegetarian
October 17, 2019
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
Did you make a recipe? Tag @pinchofyum on Instagram so we can find you!
Spices add flavor, color and zest to foods. A life without spice is a bland life. We care about people, so our ground spices are made from premium quality whole spices. Puro spices are unadulterated, full-flavor and naturally healthy.
This looks amazing and we’ve been on a gnocchi kick lately, so I definitely want to try it soon. Question though….I’ve unfortunately not seen the gnocchi kits at my local grocery store, all they have is dried. If I used a package of dry gnocchi, do you think I’d have to pre-cook them in the sauce a bit first to get them tender?
We’d recommend just cooking the dry gnocchi according to the package directions and combining it with the vodka sauce after it’s cooked.
Am I supposed to cook the fresh pasta before putting it in the sauce or does it cook in the sauce???
Good question! It’ll cook in the sauce.
Omg can’t wait to try this 🙂
Looks amazing! Do you have any substitute suggestions for an alcohol-free version?
Hi, Katie! We haven’t tested this without the vodka, but we think it’d be okay to omit it altogether.
I just made it following the recipe to a T and all I could taste was vodka :(. I think if it was cooked longer in the pan prior to the tomato paste it would have mellowed the flavour a bit. Either that or omitting altogether.
So sorry to the taste was off. Thanks for the feedback, Carolyn!
When replacing vodka i usually substitute an equal amount of apple juice!
that baked gnocchi looks awesomely delicious. I don’t know about the vodka sauce in the food, but I definitely would love to reach my spoon or fork from the computer screen and have a taste if the vodka sauce wasn’t in it 🙂
Hi!! Do you have tips on how to prep this ahead of time for a dinner party?
We ❤️ dinner parties! To cut down on your prep/cook time the day of your party, we’d suggest preparing the vodka sauce the day before. Enjoy, Stephanie! 🙂
It looks delicious. Thanks for sharing. Please do check out mine.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful post, appreciate your efforts behind this awesome post. You explained everything about recipe very nicely.
Looks so good! Wondering if you have any substitutes for the heavy cream?
Hi, Ali! We really recommend heavy cream for this recipe. You could try half and half instead, but it’ll have a different taste. If you want a dairy-free option altogether, we would recommend this recipe. 🙂
Since I have to eat gluten-free due to celiac, I’ve relied on DeLallo’s GF gnocchi, which I usually have to order online. Luckily, I have two packages on hand in my pantry, along with all the other ingredients to make this for tonight’s dinner. As I have Italian ancestry, I have made my own gnocchi (and GF homemade gnocchi) but for those times where I don’t want to, DeLallo’s is the best. Thanks for the recipe Lindsay!
Omg, it looks so yummy!
Mariya | https://www.brunetteondemand.com/chloe-ballet-flats-look-alikes/
I’m making this sauce to go with your homemade gnocchi recipe. Do I still boil the gnocchi and then combine with the sauce to bake?
Yep, that’s right. 🙂
I made this last night for some company and the flavors were spot on! I didn’t use the gnocchi kits (maybe next time!) so I just used premade gnocchi. I probably could have used three 16oz packs because there was some extra sauce when I used only two packs.
Looks amazing!
This gnocchi looks BEYOND delicious! I love that you baked it, that sounds like the perfect way to prepare it 🙂
Where in Saint Paul, MN can I buy these amazing DeLallo products I’ve been seeing on the internets lately?
I just spent too much money shipping a giant box of pasta…. but I didn’t know I needed this too!
We can usually find it at a local Cub Foods. 🙂
Oh my, this sounds too delicious! Do you know of any GF gnocchi?
DeLallo actually has gluten-free gnocchi! https://www.delallo.com/shop/delallo-gluten-free-gnocchi
Puro Cumin powder is made from Cumin seeds. Cumin powder is used for its distinctive essence and aroma.
it looks like very delicious,if i have enough time,i will to try to do and cooking it.
Unbelievably delicious! Warm, rich and tasty on a cold fall night! Thanks for sharing!
Enjoy, Allison!
What would be the best vegan sub for heavy cream? I’ve used coconut milk before but don’t know if that would work with this recipe’s flavor.
Hi, Amanda! Yep, we think coconut milk could work here. You could use our vegan vodka sauce recipe paired with the gnocchi here.
Umm that looks delicious, I want to eat it now, but I recommend this https://www.vertshock.com/ to enjoy it.
GREAT kid-friendly, and super quick weeknight recipe. The whole family loved it and will go into our regular repertoire!
So happy to hear this, Luu!
The sauce was perfect and such a hit my kids loved it. Did you ever have your family discussing how excited they are to eat the leftovers during the dinner? The gnocchi kit was a bit difficult for me because I am a nightmare with dough, so some of the pieces were different sizes. But overall an excellent recipe
Leftovers of this are the best! Glad you all enjoyed this, Debbie!
So amazingly delicious and ridiculously easy! YUM!
Glad you enjoyed this, Dori!