This Gnocchi with a Gorgonzola Cream Sauce and Fried Sage tastes far more delicious than it looks. Even though this is an Italian recipe, it was inspired by my trip to Barcelona. Let me explain. We stayed at Soho House and we ended up getting tapas at their restaurant Cecconi’s multiple times. I became obsessed with their baked gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce and ordered it three times in the week we spent in Barcelona! And when I got home my first order of business was recreating the recipe at home. It is a perfect fall meal that can come together in under 30 minutes.
This recipe is super quick and easy because it uses store-bought gnocchi, so you just need to make the sauce. The sauce is super rich and creamy, but it doesn’t actually have any cream! I used milk instead, but the gorgonzola is so decadent that you can’t taste any difference. To turn this tapa into more of a meal, I added mushrooms and to add a bit more flavor I added chopped shallots and a dash of sherry. Cecconi’s absolutely drowns their gnocchi in the gorgonzola sauce, I switched up the ratio a bit so there is less sauce.
The process of making this meal takes only about 25 minutes. Mushrooms and shallots get sautéed. Gnocchi gets cooked, and you prepare the sauce. The gnocchi and sautéed mushrooms are drowned in the rich creamy homemade gorganzola sauce, and then topped with parmesan and broiled until the parmesan has browned. The finishing touch is adding some fried sage on top just before serving. Fried sage and gorgonzola is a flavor combination straight from heaven.
If you don’t want to use gnocchi you could use your favorite pasta instead. You can serve this meal right out of the skillet (please make sure that your skillet can handle being under the broiler first), or you can put individual servings into little ramekins.
I ate this as a main dish, but it would be a wonderful side dish to serve at a fall dinner party. I think it would go well with pork tenderloin.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ tablespoon Butter
- 1 cup of Sliced Baby Bella Mushrooms
- 1 Shallot chopped
- 2 cloves of Garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons Dry Sherry
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- ⅛ teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
- 16 ounces Gnocchi
- 1 tablespoon Flour
- 1 cup of Milk
- ⅓ cup Gorgonzola
- 2 tablespoon grated Parmesan
- 10 Sage Leaves
Instructions
- First, melt ½ tablespoon butter in a skillet over medium heat. Once the butter has melted, add the mushrooms and stir to evenly coat them in the butter. Sauté for 3 minutes, then add the shallots, garlic, sherry, and salt and pepper. Continue sautéing the mushrooms until they have lightly browned, this will take about 8 minutes. Then set the mushrooms and shallots aside.
- As soon as the mushrooms are ready, put salted water on to boil for the gnocchi.
- While you wait for the water to boil, get to work on the sauce. Using the same skillet you used to sauté the mushrooms, and melt ½ tablespoon butter over medium heat. Then whisk in the flour, and let it cook for 1 minute. Then whisk in the milk. Continue to whisk until the milk beings to bubble, and let it bubble and thicken for 1 minute. Then add the gorgonzola and 1 tablespoon of the Parmesan. Stir until it has melted. Then add the mushrooms and shallots, stir and reduce the heat to low.
- By now the water should be boiling. Add the gnocchi, and cook until it floats. Then drain and stir into the sauce.
- Pour the gnocchi into an oven safe dish (or keep it in your skillet if it is oven safe). Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan over the top, and then place the gnocchi in the oven, under the broiler, until the cheese has browned. This will take 3-4 minutes, keep a close eye on it.
- While the gnocchi in the oven, fry the sage. Melt the remaining butter in a small skillet, and once the butter has melted add the sage. Cook each side for 1 minute, until the sage hardens.
- Remove the gnocchi from the oven, and serve topped with the fried sage.
