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This creamy gnocchi sauce is done in minutes! Pecorino cheese, butter and pepper make the tastiest weeknight dinner: Italian comfort food at its finest.
Dinner in 15 minutes? We have a trick we’ve been dying to share with you: our Creamy Gnocchi Sauce! It takes just minutes to make the sauce, and the gnocchi boil up in 3 minutes. It tastes like the fanciest ever mac and cheese, but takes literally no effort at all!
We modeled this sauce after one of our favorite Italian recipes, Cacio e Pepe (“cheese and pepper pasta” in Italian). We curled up with bowls of this comfort food on the couch on a rainy evening and it was pretty much perfection!
Secrets to this quick gnocchi sauce
About that Cacio e Pepe—we had the famous simple pasta dish in Rome and fell in love. It’s a sauce made with Pecorino Romano cheese, a hard cheese that’s like Parmesan on steroids. It’s so savory and salty, you barely need to use salt with it! In traditional Cacio e Pepe, you’ll make the sauce with just Pecorino cheese, pepper, butter and pasta water and serve it with spaghetti.
For a twist, here we’ve used gnocchi instead: those doughy pasta balls that are a little like tiny dumplings. Let me tell you: this creamy Pecorino sauce is truly incredible with gnocchi! It’s amazing that three simple ingredients come together into this most flavorful, creamy sauce. Here are the secrets to the sauce:
- Use Pecorino Romano cheese. You can’t get away with simple Parmesan here: Pecorino is essential for the flavor. You can find it at most grocery stores next to the Parmesan cheese.
- Save that pasta water. Using the water the pasta was cooked in lends a creamy body to the sauce. Along with butter, it’s essential for making the right consistency, so don’t forget to save it out!
- Use a good dose of black pepper. Using 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper might seem like a lot, but the sauce doesn’t come out too spicy: we promise! It brings in the final element of the flavoring.
How to make it a meal
All you need to do to serve this gnocchi sauce is garnish it with a little more Pecorino Romano cheese. If you’d like, you can add chopped fresh herbs like basil, thyme or oregano, but it’s not needed for flavor. Some nights all we want to eat is doughy balls of goodness in a creamy gnocchi sauce! To make it a balanced meal, here a few side dishes we recommend pairing alongside:
- Pan Fried Broccoli: This simple side dish comes together in a flash and brings in those needed nutrients and fiber. (Or, try these other ways to cook broccoli!)
- Sauteed Broccolini: Add elegance to your meal with a quick and simple vegetable.
- Green Beans Almondine: Green beans come together quickly.
- Broiled Asparagus: It takes no time at all to whip up lemony broiled asparagus, which adds fiber to the meal.
- Green Salad Recipes: Here’s a collection of our favorite green salads for pairing with main dishes. For this gnocchi sauce, some favorites would be this kale salad, chopped salad, or arugula salad.
Can you use homemade gnocchi?
If you have time and energy, you can make homemade gnocchi with potatoes and flour. But it’s a bit of a process! Do it on a day off when you have energy to channel Italian grandmother vibes. If you make homemade gnocchi, it should work well here. Let us know if you try it in the comments below!
Dietary notes
This gnocchi sauce recipe is vegetarian. For gluten free, use Gluten Free Gnocchi.
Easy Creamy Gnocchi Sauce
This creamy gnocchi sauce is done in minutes! Pecorino cheese, butter, and pepper make the tastiest easy weeknight dinner: Italian comfort food at its finest.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 3 to 4 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 pound packaged gnocchi (for gluten-free, use gluten free gnocchi)
- 4 tablespoons salted butter
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese, plus more for garnish
- Kosher salt
Instructions
- Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil, seasoned with about 1 tablespoon kosher salt.
- Once the water is boiling, add the gnocchi and boil until they float, about 2 to 3 minutes. Save out ½ cup of the pasta water, then drain the gnocchi and keep it in the strainer while you quickly make the sauce.
- In the same pan, melt the butter with the pepper and heat it over medium heat for 1 minute. Add ½ cup of the reserved pasta water and heat for 1 minute.
- Add the gnocchi back to the pan and add the Pecorino cheese. Stir for a minute until a creamy sauce forms. Serve warm, garnished with more Pecorino.
More easy weeknight dinners
We love creating easy weeknight dinners for you, because let’s face it: it’s hard to find them! Every person and family has different tastes, diets, and definitions of the word “easy”. But we think this one is pretty darn fast and easy, if we might say so ourselves! Here are a few more of our favorite go-to easy weeknight dinners for when we’re in a rush:
- These 5 Minute Tacos are the fastest dinner recipe we’ve ever created. It’s actually possible to make in 5 minutes (if you rush!) and so good.
- Try this Chickpea Curry! It’s so fast to make and full of flavor, made with garlic, ginger, cumin, and curry powder, and swirled with coconut milk.
- This Seared Ahi Tuna is another seriously delicious and super-fast weeknight meal.
- These Garlic Butter Noodles are so quick and simple.
delicious and easy. I added lemon juice and crumbled feta. and served it with pan fried salmon. yum
thanks
Made this delicious, switched Pecorino Romano with parmesan, perfect, one pot meal.