Creamy bacon gnocchi with spinach

This creamy bacon gnocchi is packed with flavor and quick and easy to make. It's full on comfort food, and perfect for busy nights, chilly evenings or any excuse.

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Gnocchi has long been a favorite in our house, and we often make our own, whether that's bright beet gnocchi, more autumnal acorn squash gnocchi or not-quite-but-similar spinach ricotta gnudi. They're one of the meals the kids can easily help with as there's something for all skills.

However not all days have the time to make gnocchi from scratch, of course. So whether it's drawing on a stash in the freezer, or buying from the store, it's worth having some ways to make them that bit more interesting. And this is a great solution.

Different sauces for gnocchi

Many times, if I am making gnocchi myself, we keep things really simple with some browned butter and parmesan. This lets you get all the delicate flavor in the gnocchi, and keeps things slightly lighter (as the gnocchi are themselves).

However, it does also probably mean you need more gnocchi per person. Plus if I'm using leftover gnocchi I have frozen or, on occasion, store-bought, it doesn't work as well. Both tend to be that bit heavier and need a little more added for flavor.

That's where a flavorful sauce comes in to both stretch the gnocchi further and add in some extra flavors. My gnocchi with fennel and pork is a great example of both, and I also really love the earthiness of my mushroom gnocchi. Then this one is all comfort.

An easy sauce, full of flavor

For whatever reason, pork-y flavors pair well with gnocchi. Though maybe it's partly that bacon goes with most things. Either way, there's lots of flavor here that works well and comes together easily.

This is pretty quick to make, with minimal preparation needed, though you do want to take a little time letting the onion soften and the bacon crisp a little. Allowing the onion to soften and become sweet gives a great base to the sauce, that's worth doing.

Essentially, everything is cooked in one pan and you just need to stir now and then and gradually add things. Deglazing with some stock or wine both adds flavor and helps get any tasty browning into the sauce.

After you add the cream, don't let it cook long, and keep the heat low, to avoid it getting to thick or potentially separating. Though if needed, you can add a little extra cream or stock to thin it out.

To make things a little healthier (well, kind of) and for color and variety, I added some spinach and peas. They also both go really well flavor-wise and cook nice and quickly. Alternatively, I have also made this with short lengths of asparagus instead of peas, or you could use some frozen mixed vegetables.

While the creamy sauce is perfect with gnocchi, you could also use it with small pasta, or even try it drizzled over chicken. You could even add in some extra vegetables and stock to make it into a soup, I'd guess, though I haven't tried that yet.

There's so much flavor packed into this relatively simple and easy creamy bacon gnocchi with spinach. The bacon, caramelized onions, cream and cheese all come together so well. It's also wonderfully comforting, tasty and quick to make. In other words just what you need sometimes.

Try these other tasty sauces that would be great with gnocchi:

• Lamb ragu - a delicious variation on the ragu theme with tender, flavorful lamb.
• Bacon sundried tomato pasta with spinach and cream - with some similar flavors to this sauce, and just as good with gnocchi as pasta.
• Pasta puttanesca (a tasty combination of tomato, capers, anchovies and more).

Plus get more main dish recipes in the archives.

This post may contain affiliate links, where we earn from qualifying purchases. See more details in the policy page.

This recipe was first shared in January 2017 and has been updated, primarily with new photos and added video, as well as extra information.

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