This easy Vegetarian Pesto Gnocchi is a dinner winner! Cooked in a skillet on your stovetop, it's loaded with Mediterranean flavours from roasted tomatoes, artichokes, peppers, spinach, pesto, optional plant-based sausage and gluten-free gnocchi! It comes together in less than 30 minutes.
It's vegetarian, it's gluten-free, and it can even be vegan! This easy vegetarian pesto gnocchi recipe is easy to adapt to whatever diet you need to follow!
After discovering that both gluten-free gnocchi and plant-based meat are delicious, and making Cheesy Tomato Gnocchi Bake, Sheet Pan Roasted Gnocchi with Fall Vegetables, and Italian Vegetable Gnocchi Soup, I'm on a mission to create more recipes with gluten-free gnocchi!
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❤️ Why this recipe works
Gnocchi is often considered a side dish, but in this recipe, it makes a hearty main dish, full of flavourful Mediterranean vegetables. It's an easy gnocchi recipe with lots of choices!
- Keep it gluten-free by using readily available gluten-free gnocchi.
- Keep it vegetarian by using plant-based sausage (like Beyond Meat.)
- Make it a vegan gnocchi recipe by omitting the Parmesan cheese.
I've made it all three ways, using plant-based sausage, Italian gluten-free sausage, and with and without cheese. No matter how you make it, it's a tasty veggie gnocchi recipe with all your favourite Italian flavours!
If you've been trying to add more meatless meals into your weekly menus, check out this collection of Meatless Meals--You Won't Miss the Meat!
❓If you're wondering . . .
It's an Italian word and you say it like NYOW-kee. The "g" is silent.
If you haven't tried gnocchi before, I hope you do! Gnocchi are small potato dumplings made with cooked mashed potatoes and flour. While they look like pasta and they cook like pasta, they're actually considered to be a dumpling because they're made primarily from potatoes.
Once they're cooked, they become light, fluffy little pillows. You can boil them or you can roast them on a sheet pan if you like them crispy.
While you can certainly make your own (and we'll all be impressed), you can save time by picking up either fresh or dried gnocchi at your local grocery store.
Gnocchi have a mild flavour, so pair them with lots of flavourful veggies and a savoury sauce.
Yes, it can be! You can usually find gluten-free gnocchi right next to the other types of gnocchi. It's hard to tell the difference between gnocchi made with wheat flour and gluten-free gnocchi.
🛒 Ingredients for Pesto Gnocchi
You can find the full printable recipe, including ingredient quantities, in the recipe card below. But first, here are a few details about the ingredients and steps to help you make this easy recipe with gnocchi perfectly every time.
- gnocchi: gluten-free gnocchi (or gnocchi made with wheat flour, if gluten is not a problem for you.)
- tomatoes: cherry or grape tomatoes, or any small variety of tomatoes. I like to pick up a package of heirloom multi-coloured tiny tomatoes for lots of colour and variety.
- pesto: homemade or store-bought. My recipe for 5-Minute Basil Cashew Pesto takes only (you guessed it) 5 minutes!
- artichokes: canned artichokes packed in water. Don't use marinated artichokes in this recipe, as there would be too many strong conflicting flavours.
- red bell pepper: adds a little crunch, colour and freshness to this recipe.
- spinach: fresh baby spinach leaves.
- sausage: use a plant-based sausage to keep this recipe vegetarian, or use a gluten-free Italian sausage if you want to add meat to this dish, or leave it out entirely! You do you.
- Parmesan cheese: is optional for sprinkling on top of the finished dish. Use a plant-based cheese if you want to keep this recipe dairy-free.
🔪 Instructions
You'll find detailed instructions in the recipe card at the end of this post. Here's a brief description of what you'll do to make this easy vegetarian gnocchi recipe.
Start by roasting the tomatoes in the oven until they begin to char and burst. Roasting tomatoes adds lots of flavour!
While they're in the oven, get a big pot of salted water heating. Once it's boiling, add the gnocchi. They'll be ready in about 3 minutes. As soon as they float to the top, they're done!
Scoop them out with a slotted spoon as they rise instead of draining them. You'll want to save a small amount of the water to bring the sauce together later. Set the gnocchi aside in a bowl.
Next, brown the plant-based sausage (or regular sausage). Once browned, remove the sausage from the pan and sauté red bell peppers and artichokes.
Lower the heat. Stir in the pesto, then add baby spinach leaves and roasted tomatoes to the skillet. Smells amazing, right?
Once the spinach has wilted, add the browned sausage back in. You don't want to let the pan sit on the heat for very long, as exposing pesto to high heat destroys that fresh raw taste that makes it so appealing.
Give it all a good stir, then add the cooked gnocchi with a little of the gnocchi water to bring the sauce all together. Transfer to a serving dish, garnish with fresh basil or parsley and enjoy!
🔁 Variations
Make this recipe work for you!
- This recipe is easy to adapt, based on your dietary needs. You can use regular gnocchi or gluten-free gnocchi.
- Use regular sausage or plant-based sausage.
- Keep this recipe dairy-free by omitting the Parmesan cheese.
👍🏼 Helpful Tips
- Instead of draining the gnocchi, use a slotted spoon to remove the cooked gnocchi from the water. They don't all rise to the top at the same time, so fishing them out as they float up guarantees they will all be cooked perfectly.
- Start with a small amount of pesto as you can always add more once you taste it!
- Remember to lower the heat a little once you add the pesto. High heat will destroy pesto's fresh bright flavour. All you have to do at this point is stir everything together.
- When shopping for plant-based meat, check the label. Some plant-based meats contain gluten.
🥶 Storage and Freezing Instructions
Leftovers? Store in a covered container and refrigerate. Reheat gently in the microwave.
Gnocchi is best eaten on the day it was made. It does not freeze well. The gnocchi becomes mushy and breaks down, so devour this dish while it's fresh!
🍽 Serving suggestions
This gnocchi recipe is both filling and satisfying, so you won't need much more to round out your meal than a simple green salad or a kale salad.
🗒More 30-minute meals
- Delicious Avocado Tacos (Easy)
- Easy Japanese Chicken Yakitori Skewers
- Easy Japanese Chicken Stir Fry with Broccoli
- Vietnamese Prawn (Shrimp) Noodle Bowl
When you make this easy pesto gnocchi recipe with plant-based meat (or another sausage), please leave a comment and a rating below. I love hearing how my recipes turned out for you, or what adaptations you made. Thanks in advance!
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📖 Recipe
Easy Vegetarian Pesto Gnocchi
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or avocado oil, divided
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes, or other small tomatoes
- sea salt and pepper
- 1 pound (16 oz) potato gnocchi, gluten-free for gluten-free diet
- 7 oz. (200 gm) plant-based sausage, like Beyond Meat sausage, or your favourite Italian sausage
- 1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into ½-inch squares
- 1 14 oz. can artichokes in water, quartered
- ⅓ cup basil pesto
- 2 cups baby spinach leaves
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F. Arrange tomatoes on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Toss with your hands to coat evenly. Roast for 10 - 12 minutes or until the tomatoes are beginning to char or burst. Remove from the oven and set aside.
- Meanwhile, heat a large pot of generously salted water on the stovetop. Once it is boiling, add the gnocchi. When they float to the top, remove them with a slotted spoon to a bowl. Save ½ cup of the cooking water for later.
- Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to a large skillet. Slice the sausage into ¼ inch slices and brown on both sides until cooked through. Remove the sausage slices to the bowl with the tomatoes.
- Sauté the red pepper in the skillet until it begins to soften, then add the quartered artichokes.
- Lower the heat, then stir in the pesto, a little at a time. Add the spinach and stir until it begins to wilts.
- Add the roasted tomatoes and cooked gnocchi into the skillet. Stir in ⅓ to ½ cup of the reserved gnocchi water to help bring the sauce together.
- Garnish with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and a few basil leaves or chopped parsley if you'd like, and serve hot.
Video
Notes
- Instead of draining the gnocchi, use a slotted spoon to remove the cooked gnocchi from the water. They don't all rise to the top at the same time, so fishing them out as they float up guarantees they will all be cooked perfectly.
- Start with a small amount of pesto as you can always add more once you taste it!
- Remember to lower the heat a little once you add the pesto. High heat will destroy pesto's fresh bright flavour. All you have to do at this point is stir everything together.
- When shopping for plant-based meat, check the label. Some plant-based meats contain gluten.
Meg
Loved this. I made it yesterday and used regular sausage, but plan to try the plant-based ones soon! Thanks!
Elaine
Thanks Meg. I hope you do get a chance to try them soon. I was agreeably surprised at how good they are!