A quick an easy weeknight dinner, one sheet pan oven baked gnocchi with sausage and vegetables is as delicious as it is convenient. It's packed full of vegetables, spicy Italian sausage and no boil, oven baked gnocchi that gets crispy on the outside and tender and chewy in the middle. This dish will surely become one your family faves.
If you've never made oven baked gnocchi before, this will forever change how you prepare gnocchi. Oven baked gnocchi is soft and chewy on the inside and had a great crispy outer texture that goes so well with roasted vegetables and crispy spicy Italian sausage.
The best part is it comes together super fast, all on one baking sheet and is super adaptable. It makes a great weeknight dinner and will fit right into your dinner rotation along with my awesome chicken pitas that should definitely be in your rotation.
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Why you'll love this recipe
There is lots of reasons to love a simple one pan dinner:
- It is easy to make. No messy boiling of the gnocchi. One sheet pan means minimal cleanup after.
- It is super filling and makes an entire meal in dish. Full of veggies and protein with the sausage, there is no need for anything else to complete the meal.
- It is light. Sometimes boiled gnocchi can be heavy and soggy, but this dish is oven baked and light and crispy. A light dressing of olive oil, the cooking juices from the sausage and vegetables and a quick squeeze of lemon keeps this oven baked gnocchi dish light and bright flavor.
- It is super versatile. This is a great dish to make when you have odds and ends of vegetable in your fridge. You don't have to use the vegetables I use, you can use whatever you have on hand and whatever is in season.
Ingredients
Oven baked gnocchi with sausage and vegetables has literally the simplest ingredient list. Here's what you need:
- Gnocchi. This is the perfect recipe to use store bought gnocchi. They bake up in the oven so much better than softer homemade ones. I get my gnocchi from Wild Grains, and I have made homemade a million times and tried other store bought a thousand times, and these are by far the best gnocchi you can buy.
- Italian sausage. I like spicy but you can use sweet Italian sausage instead if you prefer.
- Garlic
- Dried oregano
- Crushed red pepper. Optional and use according to your spice tolerance.
- Olive oil. Since this recipe doesn't call for any additional sauce, I like to use one of my nicer olive oils for great flavor.
- Fresh vegetables. This is where this recipe is kind of a choose-your-own-adventure. I used peppers, onions, kale and brussel sprouts.
- Canned tomatoes. You can most certainly use fresh tomatoes when they are in season, but canned whole tomatoes work in a pinch, and are what I use.
Instructions
When I say easy, I mean it. Making oven baked gnocchi with sausage and vegetables is all about roasting and layer on a single baking sheet.
Give all your veggies a rough chop and put on a parchment lined baking sheet along with the garlic and tomatoes drizzle with olive oil . Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Remove the sausage from the casing and pinch off small pieces and place on top of the vegetables. Roast this in the oven at 425 for 15 minutes.
Pull the sheet pan out of the oven, add the gnocchi, additional olive oil and toss to combine all the ingredients. Roast this an additional 15-20 minutes at the same temperature.
When the gnocchi is crispy (along with everything else), remove from the oven and toss in the grated lemon zest and lemon juice and mix everything up.
This gets finished with fresh basil, and an extra drizzle of your best olive oil.
Ingredient swaps and variations
Oven baked gnocchi with sausage and vegetables is perfect exactly as is, but here are few ways to mix it up:
- Use cauliflower or sweet potato gnocchi instead of potato gnocchi. You can get great store bought of either cauliflower or sweet potato gnocchi that are great.
- Add a splash of balsamic vinegar when you add the gnocchi. It will get syrupy and glaze everything after roasting it down. Use this instead of the lemon juice. It is a great compliment to all of the other ingredients.
- Mix up your veggies. Use whatever you have on hand. Carrots, zucchini and asparagus are all great additions to this dish.
- Use any kind of vinegar in place of the lemon juice at the end. This dish needs a hit of something acidic, and if you don't have lemons on hand, a splash of sherry vinegar, red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar (really any kind), works just as well.
Tips for success
A few things to ensure a successful oven baked gnocchi dish at home:
- Make sure the tray is big enough to mostly make a single layer of vegetables so they roast down well and get caramelized and crispy.
- Make the pieces of sausage small enough that will cook through and get crispy.
- Don't skip the acid in the dish. A dish like this with the fat from the olive oil and the sausage, the crisp vegetables and the rich gnocchi needs some acidic element.
Top tip
My biggest and most important tip for making this recipe is try cut the vegetables roughly the same size. This ensures they will all cook evenly.
Other dinner recipe ideas
Oven baked gnocchi with sausage and vegetables will be in your dinner rotation for sure, and check out some of these great recipes.
Equipment
- 1 large baking sheet
Ingredients
- 16 oz potato gnocchi store bought
- 2 cups kale chopped
- 1 cup red bell pepper chopped
- 1 cup yellow or orange bell pepper chopped
- 1 cup brussel sprouts halved
- 1 onion red or yellow, chopped
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 lb spicy Italian sausage
- 2 teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 1 lemon zest and juice
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Extra olive oil for finishing
- Fresh basil for finishing
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 and line a large baking sheet with parchment. Spread all the chopped vegetables on the tray, the garlic cloves (leave them whole) and the spices. and drizzle with half of the olive oil and toss, laying out in a single layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Remove the sausage links from the casing and pinch off bite-sized pieces of sausage and place on top of the layer of vegetables. Roast the veggies and the sausage for 15 minutes. The sausage pieces should be small enough that they will be cooked through, and the vegetables will have softened and begin to caramelize.
- Add your gnocchi to the sheet pan and the rest of the olive oil and stir everything together, spreading out as best you can into a single layer. Continue to roast for an additional 15 minutes or until the gnocchi are crispy and the vegetables are soft and caramelized. Remove from the oven and toss with grated lemon zest and lemon juice. Smash down the whole garlic cloves when tossing to get their flavor incorporated throughout (they will soft and easy to mash). Taste and adjust he salt and pepper to your liking.
- Serve with an extra drizzle of olive oil and chopped fresh basil on top.
Sandie says
This was great.The lemon juice at the end really brightens the whole thing up. Thx for the recipe
Joel says
We really enjoyed this. It was bright and lemony which really made it great.
Lauriane Wunsch says
Never thought about cooking gnocchi this way and it turned out great. Used a variety of vegetables I had on hand and chicken in place of the sausage.
Saul Mccoy says
This was so much lighter than most gnocchi recipes, we really liked it. The texture the gnocchi got from the oven was light and crispy. Great recipe