Easy Baked Ricotta Gnocchi With Sausage, Peppers And Tomatoes (30 Minute Recipe)
on Apr 06, 2018, Updated Nov 09, 2022
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It’s well worth the 10 minutes of effort to make your own 3-ingredient ricotta gnocchi for this delicious baked gnocchi recipe with sausage, peppers and tomatoes. Your meal will still be on the table in only 30 minutes!
I remember the first few times I tried gnocchi. I wanted to like it, I really did, but it didn’t rock my world. Gloopy, bouncy, rubbery, boring are words that came to mind.
These days I do enjoy a gnocchi dish occasionally, even the store bought packaged kind, BUT…
Why you’ll love homemade ricotta gnocchi
I’ve made potato gnocchi a couple of times (once very disastrously with sweet potatoes when I added far too much flour – yuck). It was good and quite easy, but a bit too much hard work for my liking.
But ricotta gnocchi is another matter. It’s EASY, guys. And I really mean easy. Like dump 3 ingredients in a bowl, mix, roll and cut into gnocchi sized bits easy.
It takes literally 5 minutes.
Almost as fast as opening that supermarket package of gloopy potato gnocchi.
Ricotta gnocchi ingredients
You may know that ricotta gnocchi is usually made with an egg, just like other types of gnocchi. This recipe however is egg free. It has only these 3 ingredients:
- ricotta cheese
- flour
- parmesan cheese
So no eggs, and in my humble opinion it doesn’t suffer in the slightest for it. The gnocchi are soft, deliciously cheesy pillows.
They don’t need salt either (hello salty parmesan cheese!) and I don’t even add pepper because I add that to the finished tray bake before serving.
So this baked ricotta gnocchi with sausage, peppers and tomatoes is a combination of 2 recipes – one which I spotted in the latest edition of Australian Delicious Magazine and the other my own creation that has been in our regular meal rotation for ages.
The first time I made this I used packaged gnocchi, thinking I’d save a bit of precious time. But as already explained I don’t think it saves that much time, as you’re waiting for your veggies to roast in the oven anyway.
And in all honestly it is TOTALLY WORTH spending those few extra minutes while the vegetables are roasting mixing up those 3 ingredients and rolling out your own gnocchi.
There is just no comparison to the store bought stuff. This homemade ricotta gnocchi gets 10 out of 10.
This is a perfect quick and easy weeknight meal. The sausage gives it loads of flavour. Just make sure you buy really good quality sausage.
The roasted veggies add brownie points for health, and the tomatoes squish fabulously into your meal as you eat. In fact, you almost get a kind of simple sauce as the tomatoes slosh together with the olive oil, paprika and sausage juices.
Am I making your mouth water yet?
The icing on the cake is torn bits of mozzarella. Not essential but highly recommended!
I like to sprinkle some fresh basil over the finished dish for a bit of contrasting colour and class, but this is optional too.
You might be wondering how it’s possible to get this on the table in 30 minutes, but it is possible once you’ve practised once or twice!
How to make it
- Roughly chop veggies and sausage and roast with tomatoes for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the quick and easy 3-ingredient ricotta gnocchi.
- Scatter the gnocchi and mozzarella over the vegetables and sausage.
- Grill/Broil for a few minutes until golden and bubbling. Top with basil and more olive oil Mmmm!
If you like you can add other vegetables to the baking tray. Anything that roasts within 20 minutes, really, such as:
- mushrooms
- zucchini (courgette)
- halved brussels sprouts
- green beans
And of course you could VERY easily make this vegetarian simply by skipping the sausage.
So this baked gnocchi with sausage, peppers and tomatoes is a pretty healthy and balanced meal all in all. And it’s low carb too, if that happens to be important to you.
If you already know you’re a fan of gnocchi, I also have some more delicious gnocchi recipes on the blog. Two of them include packaged gnocchi, but you could easily substitute some of this homemade ricotta gnocchi! Enjoy!
More gnocchi recipes
- Sausage, butternut squash and kale gnocchi bake
- This pan-fried gnocchi with cherry tomato sauce is truly amazing – watch the video in the post to see how to make it, but it’s really easy, and unbelievably delicious!
- Crockpot chicken gnocchi soup (Olive Garden copycat) – this is one of the most popular recipes on the blog!
- Easy ricotta gnudi with roasted tomato sauce (mmm… delicious!)
More 30-minute meals
- Creamy lemon chicken orzo soup
- 30-minute Greek mac and cheese bake
- Moussaka penne (Greek beef and eggplant pasta bake)
- The simplest stovetop chicken and rice
- OR check out all my easy midweek meals!
Equipment I like to use for this recipe:
I like to use a large baking tray like this one (affiliate link) for this recipe. It’s a bit easier than trying to crowd everything onto a half sheet pan size tray!
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Easy Baked Ricotta Gnocchi With Sausage, Peppers And Tomatoes (30 Minute Recipe)
Ingredients
- 1 red bell pepper, UK: pepper, Australia: capsicum
- 1 green bell pepper, (or yellow or orange)
- 1 large red onion
- 14 ounces sausages, any kind, but good quality
- 13 ounces cherry tomatoes
- 1.5 teaspoons paprika
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
- black pepper
- 3.5 ounces mozzarella balls, sliced (either regular or mini bocconcini)
- 1 handful fresh basil
For the gnocchi
- 13 ounces ricotta cheese, (1.5 cups)
- 2 ounces flour, (half a cup) the dough will seem quite wet, but add a little more flour if it really seems too wet to roll
- 1.75 ounces parmesan cheese, (a quarter cup) grated
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 430F / 220C.
- Cut the bell peppers, onions and sausages into large pieces and scatter across a large baking tray. Add the tomatoes to the tray as well.
- Sprinkle over the paprika and olive oil, grind over some black pepper, then roast for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, mix the ricotta, flour and parmesan together in a medium bowl and bring together into a ball with your hands (*see important note below!).
- Roughly divide the dough into 4 balls. Then flour your hands and a big board or other surface and roll each ball out into a roughly 1-inch -wide log with your hands.
- Chop each log into roughly 1.5-inch lengths and transfer to a large plate.
- Cook in 2 batches in a large pan of boiling water until the gnocchi float to the top (a few minutes). Remove from the water with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Remove your vegetables and sausage from the oven and scatter the cooked gnocchi and mozzarella over the top. Broil (US) / Grill (UK/Australia) for 5 to 10 minutes until the mozzarella is bubbling and the gnocchi are starting to go brown.
- Serve onto plates and drizzle with a little extra olive oil and scatter with fresh basil leaves.
Could I make this using shop bought potato gnocchi
Hi Linda! Oh yes, for sure! Just cook them according to the packet instructions before adding them to the tray. Do try the ricotta gnocchi some time though. They take literally 10 minutes to make and are so much yummier than the shop bought kind 😉
Thanks for the quick reply! Also wondering if I could finish this off in the oven instead of having to put the grill on
Hi Linda! I think you could, but I think it would take much longer for the gnocchi and mozzarella to brown, which is what we’re looking for. You could try turning the oven right up and see if that works? Good luck!
Love this combination of flavors, Helen and that you could make every bite a little bit different!
Hi Marissa – thank you! So glad you like it!
I worked in an authentic Italian restaurant as a teen and they prided themselves on their homemade gnocchi which was made with potatoes. (It was delish!) But I’ve never tried a ricotta gnocchi before. I love that it only has 3 ingredients and seems so much easier! Thanks for the recipe.
There’s usually nothing like the lovingly made authentic version but hey, when you just want to get a delicious dinner on the table on a weeknight I’m willing to cut some corners! Hope you give this a try!
You’re welcome, Emilie. Thank you so much for leaving your review!
Holy cow this is legit easier than rushing to the store to buy it! AMAZING! I’ll for sure be making gnocchi so much more now!
Hi Jen! Ha! Great, isn’t it? Me too!