No-fuss gnocchi: party in a sheet pan
No-fuss gnocchi: party in a sheet pan
It's easy. It's delicious. It's adaptable. It's time to make this!
Ciao, folks, and welcome back to Cool Beans! We caught up with two-time New York Times bestselling cookbook writer Jake Cohen a week before the launch of his new TV series, Jake Makes It Easy, which premieres on A&E Oct. 28. In it, the author of Jew-ish and I Could Nosh shatters the myth that hosting is hard. So when we asked him to share a recipe he makes On Repeat, the social media star was excited to schmooze about his go-to dinner-party dish: sheet-pan gnocchi.
It’s an inspiring evolution of what he once considered the easiest pasta dish ever: “It was literally: cook a pound of pasta; roast a bunch of cherry tomatoes with vinegar, olive oil, herbs, and garlic; and toss the two together,” he says.
Delicious? Check. Easy? Sure. But there was one problem: “I was like, okay, that uses a pan and a pot. How do I make it so it’s either one pot or one pan?”
He began playing around with the idea of swapping pasta for store-bought gnocchi and tossing all the ingredients together on a single baking sheet. “The tomatoes burst, releasing their juices, and that helps steam through the gnocchi. It bakes uncovered in a hot oven so it ends up crispy on the outside, tender on the inside.”
Why I love it
“It's so easy to clean up, and it's a full meal. It feels like a bit of a play on pasta alla Norma, but absolutely bastardizing Italian food in a way that’s so delicious and such a very clear new staple.
“The fresh cherry tomatoes add in that perfect sweetness and acidity to the sauce, which gives you this really fun intense umami tomato punch with every bite. This is one of those things that’s just as good when you’re cooking for yourself as it is for entertaining.”
What I’ve changed
“It works so well that I had to make it a million different ways. I look at this as a pantry dish that you can play with.
“I love making a mashup with another concept. How do I mash up with ratatouille? I go all summer vegetables and douse it with herbes de Provençe. I've done it in a puttanesca style, where I have it brimming with briny flavors like mixed olives and capers. I've done it with jarred artichokes and sundried tomatoes. Same deal with beans if you wanted to bump up the protein. I'll often add in a can of white beans, strained, and then the beans get a little crispy in the oven but they also add that beautiful silky texture.”
What else I’m into right now
Sumac. I cook a lot of Middle Eastern food, and single-origin spices are kind of my favorite thing at the moment. I’ve been playing with sumac, which is a dried berry that's usually ground and served with grilled meats or over yogurt. It adds a pop of acidity, but it doesn’t have a very intense flavor. It’s perfect in salad dressing; it’s perfect in dessert; it goes so well with fruit; it goes so well with chocolate. It’s kind of become my secret weapon to amp up any dish.
High-protein soft serve. I got very into my Ninja CREAMi for high-protein soft serve, because I could play around with a million things. I’ll do a combination of oats and oat milk and plant-based protein powder, and then typically peanut butter. And the best part is I throw in any fruit that has started to look a little lackluster. I blend that up and freeze it and then throw it in the CREAMi and it’s a perfect snack.
Salad Freak. One of my good friends, Jess Damuck, wrote a book called Salad Freak, and it’s one of my favorite things in the world. It makes me excited about salad, which is what I try to do in my cookbooks—give any dish the attention and love and TLC it deserves. She creates these really ornate salads that are the main show.
Recipe: Sheet-Pan Baked Gnocchi
By Jake Cohen
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients
2 pounds store-bought gnocchi (uncooked)
2 pounds cherry tomatoes
1 medium eggplant, cut into ½-inch cubes
¼ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons dried oregano
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Shaved Pecorino Romano cheese, for garnish*
Torn basil, for garnish
Procedure
1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
2. On a sheet pan, toss the gnocchi, cherry tomatoes, and eggplant with the olive oil, honey, balsamic, oregano, crushed red pepper, garlic, and 2 heavy pinches each of salt and pepper.
3. Bake for 30 minutes until the gnocchi is lightly golden and tomatoes have blistered. Toss gently to combine, then transfer to a serving platter. Garnish with shaved Pecorino and torn basil, then serve.
Notes and Substitutions
Sub nutritional yeast or your favorite non-dairy cheese for a lower-emissions punch.