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Comfort food…oh how I love you!
And I am so happy your time to shine has come again.
You know, even though I complain about it, I think it may be a good thing I live in such a cold place. As much as I hate the cold, I love cozy… and in my head you can’t really be cozy without cold.
My point is, cold weather makes me think cozy thoughts… blankets, fires, soup, stew, pasta, cheese, hot cocoa…Â yadda, yadda, yadda. I could go on and on and on, but I’ll spare you some rambling.
It’s not a secret around here that I happen to do cozy food REALLY well. Even in the warmer months, I can somehow manage to find a way to make a dish cozy. You might even call it my specialty! So you can imagine how excited I am to be heading into these cozy months ahead. Fall is my favorite, and it’s T-minus six days until its official start. Clearly I have left summer in the dust. Sorry summer, I will love you again come late May/June, but today it’s on to cozy gnocchi!
I know, YES!!
Here’s the thing. This is actually the PERFECT transition to fall meal. While it is baked and super cozy, it’s also a great way to use up all those beautiful late summer tomatoes and fresh basil. So you see, you kind of get summer and fall in one.
Cool. I think I kind of like that!
Best part?? You honestly just add everything to a baking dish all at once and throw it in the oven. It could not be easier! Like SO SIMPLE, you will love it! AND the 45 minutes listed to make this dish, that’s almost all spent baking in the oven, giving you bonus free time. YES. I love, love, love when that happens. Depending on the time of day (cause most of the time I cook throughout the day) I’ll either get some work done on my computer or…ehh, that’s a lie, most likely I’ll do something that’s a total waste of time, like get caught up on Snapchat. OR, if by chance I am cooking at night and have a free 45 minutes? Oh my gosh you better believe I am taking the longest shower known to man. Lately there just hasn’t been enough shower time happening in my life!
When I was growing up I would come home from school, immediately get all my homework done and then have to “wash off” school in the shower. Fully admitting my mental issues right here and now. But really, that’s how much I disliked school. I had to shower to get it off of me. I know, isn’t that weird?
Good news is that fortunately I have grown out of this…or well, I am just out of school now, so the whole “washing off school” thing is kind of obsolete. Anyway, my nice hot showers are no longer frequent, nor long enough for my liking. Who knew that there would come a day when I literally had to make time for a shower. Like UGH. Grown up life is brutal!
But guys, I am clean…I just don’t always get a daily shower…which does make me sad, but apparently it’s really good for my hair and skin. So… cool??
Ahh, sorry. Enough about my hygiene habits.
This one-pan spinach and cheese gnocchi! It’s a beautiful thing, right? I actually made my own homemade ricotta gnocchi, but seeing as I really wanted this to be a throw and go kind of meal you can use store-bought if you prefer. I used this simple recipe from the kitchn for ricotta gnocchi if you are interested.
And like I said before, the rest is really simple. The sauce is basically tomatoes + my special little ingredient that spices this dish up just a bit…enchilada sauce! I know that may seem weird in an Italian dish, but trust me, it works! Also, I used a few different cheeses, including blue cheese. If you’re not a fan, I think goat cheese or simply feta would both be good substitutes.
Final selling point: you don’t even need to boil the gnocchi. Just put all the ingredients in a baking dish and… DONE.
Seriously, I love meals like this, they make weekday life so much better!!
Oh and!! My whole family ate it! This made me beyond happy!
Like Kai didn’t even ask questions about the green basil, he just kept eating. That is a beautiful thing right there!
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Oh, and don’t forget about that parmesan. You just can’t, it’s the best!
I’ve never made gnocchi before but my wife loves it – the flavors sound incredible!! I love the use of multiple cheese. Oh and the showering thing – I’m sure your hair loves you for the break 🙂
Comfort food indeed!! This sounds so delicious.
I’m going to try and make this on my smoker, as much as I bbq I should be able to find a way to make this work. Plus it will give it a nice smoky flavor.
This is gorgeous! I love comfort foods too, and totally miss them in the summer when it’s way too hot to turn on the oven, but I’m a summer girl through and through so it always makes me a bit sad when fall rolls around. Our days get so short up here in Calgary and our winters are looong. This sounds perfect for one of our frosty days, though!
Do you need to precook the gnocchi? Prep time obviously does not include roasting garlic, making pesto, and cooking gnocchi. Amazingly delicious sounding recipe and the photos are drool worthy! Thanks for any tips!
Hi!! No you do not need to precook the gnocchi and if you do not have time you can use store bought pesto + raw garlic. Thanks!!
warm, cozy and so yummy looking! Need to try this asap. xo
I’m with you – love cooler weather and cozy comfort foods!! And…I have never seen a better looking gnocchi dish in my life. This tomato cream sauce looks amazing!!
What a good point- I hate cold, but cozy is one of my favorite things. And I’m going to the grocery store this evening and picking out everything I need to make this gnocchi. Looooove!
I all about easy meals like this! Thanks for the inspiration girl!
I love your feelings about fall, I am right with you! I live in the mid-west and people tell me I should move to Alaska because I love the cold so much! I think Colorado would be my ideal spot. I have been a Montessori teacher for 25 years and share harvesting foods, recycling, respect for the environment with my 3-6 year old class. I really enjoy reading what you write and have tried many of your recipes. Don’t mean to” toot my own horn” but I am a pretty good cook in my own rights and can’t figure out how you come up with such creative recipes. One of my dreams would be to harvest my own food, cook away and share with my community. (In a cooler climate) Thank you for inspiring me to do what I love and continue dreaming!
Hi Tieghan! Could i substitute cheese tortellini if I didn’t ave the cheese gnocchi?
I would love to make this dish this weekend!
Thank you!
Hi Kristen!
Yes, I think that would be delicious and will work out well with the cooking times I have listed!! Hope you love this, let me know! 🙂
I’ve never used gnocchi before but this recipe looks amazing.
Being a teacher for 40 years my life is school but I only need a shower after school when the temperature goes over 85 like it is this week.
I would literally go insane without my daily shower, but then again, I do live in a warmer country and in a quite humid area, so there… THe look of this dish has me salivating at half past ten in the morning which is not really fair!!
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been missing your cozy food posts! well, sort of; it’s only just started to get cooler in california (though who knows, it was hotter last week than it was most of the summer) so i haven’t been ready to eat those kinds of things, but i’ve missed hearing about them.
I love tomato’s you have taken different type of tomato’s for your “One-Pan Spinach and Cheese Gnocchi with Roasted Garlic Tomato Cream Sauce” that really makes me feel to eat this, its looks very tasty.