Baked Gnocchi with Sausage, Kale, and Pesto
Updated March 26, 2019
Baked Gnocchi with Sausage, Kale, and Pesto-a simple casserole of potato gnocchi, sausage, kale, basil pesto, and lots of cheese!
Our boys are pretty good eaters and will usually eat whatever we fix, but we do have the occasional tears at dinnertime. It is usually when they are tired or don’t want to stop playing. You win some and you lose some.
We always win at dinnertime when we make Baked Gnocchi with Sausage, Kale, and Pesto. My boys love this recipe, Josh included! I know there will never be tears shed when I make this dish, well, maybe tears of joy:)
Caleb likes to help me make dinner and every time I ask him what we should make he says gnocchi or sausage. They are his favorite foods. I decided to make a baked gnocchi dish with his favorite ingredients and it has become a favorite with all of my boys.
I always use store bought gnocchi to keep things easy. I also use Jimmy Dean Premium Pork Sausage, my boys favorite sausage. We always keep a few packages in the freezer so we never run out! My boys eat this sausage morning, noon, and night and they love it in this baked gnocchi dish.
I also add kale to the pasta, you know so I can sneak in some greens into my boys diet…and basil pesto for flavor. I like to use our spinach pesto because I always have some in the freezer. It always comes in handy! And of course the gnocchi gets loaded with lots of cheese!
Bake until bubbly and serve!! There will be smiles all around when this is comforting dish is on the dinner table!
Add this simple and delicious Baked Gnocchi with Sausage, Kale, and Pesto to your dinner menu! It is great for busy weeknights or easy entertaining. Enjoy!
Baked Gnocchi with Sausage, Kale, and Pesto
Ingredients
- 1 pound package of potato gnocchi
- 10 ounces Jimmy Dean® Premium Pork Regular Roll Sausage
- 4 cups packed chopped kale
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup basil pesto
- 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese divided
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook gnocchi according to package instructions. Drain and set aside.
- In a large skillet, cook sausage over medium high heat for 8-10 minutes or until thoroughly cooked, stirring frequently; drain and set aside. Place skillet back on the heat and cook the kale for 5 minutes, or until tender. Pour sausage back in the skillet.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Stir in garlic and cook until lightly golden, about 1 minute. Whisk in flour until mixture thickens. Add the milk and whisk until the sauce thickens, about 3 minutes. Whisk in the pesto and ½ cup of the cheese. Whisk until smooth. Season with salt and black pepper, to taste.
- Spray a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray. Combine the gnocchi, sausage, and kale and pour into prepared pan. Pour the sauce evenly over gnocchi. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted and gnocchi is bubbling. Let sit for 5 minutes. Serve warm.
Have you tried this recipe?
Leave a comment below and share a photo on Instagram. Tag @twopeasandpod and hashtag it with #twopeasandtheirpod
Disclosure-this post is sponsored by Jimmy Dean, but our opinions are our own. Thank you for supporting the brands that continue to make Two Peas and Their Pod possible.
I get their struggle, I have tears of joy myself right now just looking at this AMAZINGNESS! What a perfect way to get them their greens. 🙂
This looks amazing! Caleb and I have similar tastes – gnocchi + sausage = happiness! Definitely adding this to the menu this week.
Caleb is always happy when this is on the dinner table. I hope you like it too!
Oh this looks delicious!
Looks so cheesy and delicious!!
Looks perfect for a cold winter day!
Love this baked gnocchi! I make a soup that is similar and the flavour combos are amazing!
What a delicious looking dinner!
this recipe sounds great! when do you add the sausage and kale to the gnocci?
Combine with the gnocchi and then pour into pan!
This looks incredible! Do you have any insights on freezing this amazingness?
I haven’t tried it because my boys always gobble it up, but I am sure it would freeze just fine. Cool completely and freeze in a freezer safe container.
What temp do you bake at?
350 degrees F
This has me needing to make this ASAP and might have to use Italian sausage instead…. Love your pan you baked this in. So homey looking! Love it!
I love that you baked the gnocchi after cooking it in a pot! All that gooey cheese looks delicious!
Prepared this amazing dish this evening and it is absolutely Divine! Love It.
Such refined taste buds your boys have!
Mine is in the oven right now. My pesto bechamel is a lot greener than your photos. However, it tastes really good! It’s a really good combination of flavors.
Those look insanely delicious, totally bookmarking this to try!
Happy Blogging!
I am so excited! I am making this right now. I doubled the recipe and used fresh spinach instead of Kale. It smells so good, and my teenage boys will love it! Thanks Maria. : )
Thanks for sharing 🙂 I think I will give it a shot this weekend, but for a semi-healthy January twist I’ll make it with handmade sweet potato gnocchi (no kiddies yet so a bit more prep-time in my life!!) Looks so good, can’t wait to try! x
I mistakenly bought basil pesto cream sauce but I improvised and this dish turned out amazing!!!! Creamier and cheesy! Also bought Italian sausage to add a little kick to it. YUM!!!
I’m hoping to make this tomorrow so I can have it ready after our day trip on thursday, it’ll be okay to keep in the fridge before baking right? or would you suggest part-baking it? I’m so excited, it looks incredible 🙂
I just made this but didn’t use the brand you used. I made it with Vegan sausage and posted the photo on my Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/ajllewellynauthor and it is delicious! I love your blog!
I would love to make this. What brand of gnocchi do you buy? I have yet to find a brand that I truly like. Thanks for your input! Love your family friendly meals!
We use DeLallo! It is so good!
How would you make this recipe gluten free?
You can use gluten-free gnocchi and flour. DeLallo makes a great gluten-free gnocchi!
I’m finally sitting down to plan our menu plan for March. This is definitely going on the plan! Especially since my husband has recently discovered his love of kale. 😉
Yay! I hope you enjoy the recipe!
I don’t usually comment on stuff, but I HAD to comment on this. This is my second time making this, and I’m making it again tomorrow for a lady who just had surgery. It is literally my FAVORITE dish omg! The first time I made it, the pan was gone in one day. I LOVE this stuff! Best. Recipe. Ever. There’s also so many different things you could do with it, but it’s absolutely PERFECT as is!!
I am so happy you liked the recipe! My boys love this one!
I made this, and used whole wheat gnocchi it was soooooo good. I’m making it again this week. Thanks so much for the recipe!
So glad you liked it!
I have this in the oven now.
When I was making the sauce–the rue came together nicely. When I put the “cheese” in, I assumed this meant the mozzarella since the recipe wasn’t specific if it was both the parm and the mozzarella. The sauce kind of seized up when I put the mozzarella in..? It turned into almost glue-y consistency. I still put it altogether into my casserole dish and am baking it anyway. Anyone else experienced this and/or give me advice on where I went wrong? Or if that’s how the sauce supposed to look?
Hi Mai,
I put the mozerella in and some of the parmesan in at this point and it also went a bit gooey, I added some more milk and even though it seemed a little elastic, when it came out of the oven, it was divine!
Seeing as you wrote this so long ago, I’m sure you know how yummy it was!
Anahita
I substituted mushrooms for the sausage (we’re veg and my girls love mushrooms) and added fresh rosemary I had lying around. Divine!
This was INCREDIBLY disappointing if you want to drown your dinner in cheese sauce be my guest, you can’t even taste the other ingredients in the recipe.
My teen boys LOVED this dinner! It will now be part of the regular dinner rotation. Thanks for a delicious way to get kale into our diet.
I made this tonight and it was delicious! The only thing I did different was us 16 oz of sausage instead of 10 oz. Thank you for the amazing recipe! We loved it!
OK, honestly, this is one of the most delicious pasta dishes I have ever made!
Thank you SO much for this recipe! I found it on pinterest, made it last night here in Hong Kong (the ingredients meant that it was something of a special dish because gnocchi and sausages are hard to come by!) and I’m still thinking about it!
Can’t wait to make it again and now I’m going to see what else you have on your blog!
Sincerely,
Dreaming of gnocchi x
Could I make this the day before and cover it with foil in the fridge? I am having a party and need to make several dishes the night before
I JUST LOVE this dinner. Thank you for sharing for such a yummy recipe.
You are welcome!
Have you tried it with almond or cashew milk? This looks so good but we also have lactose issues.
I haven’t tried it, but I am sure they would work out just fine.
Is the store bought gnocchi that you use frozen?
No, you can find it in the pasta aisle.
Thank you!
Do you think I could freeze this? If so, at what point would you recommend freezing?
Yes, you can bake it and then freeze it after it has cooled. Defrost and reheat!
Is there nutrition information listed somewhere?
I just love this dinner. Thank you for sharing for such a yummy recipe.
It’s a winner at our house too!
Can I make this vegetarian? If so, what to you recommend? Thanks!
I don’t like mushrooms. I saw a previous post about someone who used mushrooms instead of sausage.
Sure, you can leave out the sausage. You can bulk it up with a little more kale if you want!
When u make the spinach pesto how much ingredients of stuff do u use please there was no measurement thank u
Hi! This looks delicious!!
Do you have any suggestions as to what to serve with this? I was thinking a side salad and garlic bread. What do you serve with it? Any side dishes?
I plan to make this ahead for a dinner tomorrow night with our son, his wife and daughter.
Thank you,
Faye
A salad and garlic bread would be perfect. Search our site for easy green salad and garlic bread! Both are easy! Enjoy!
This looks so delicious!
I’m late to the party with this recipe but made it tonight for the first time. Oh my goodness, it was so delicious! My husband (who is not a gnocchi lover) couldn’t stop raving about how good it was. It’ll definitely go into rotation for winter. Can’t recommend enough!
This looks amazing! I want to make a vegetarian version. Could you suggest what I could substitute for the sausage?
Mushrooms would be good!
We’ve made this numerous times and it’s a favorite in our house! I forgot to buy mozzarella the most recent time I made it, so I added 1/2 cup of Parmesan to the sauce and 1/2 cup Parmesan to the top of the dish. I didn’t even miss the mozzarella, so I’m going to omit it in the future as well to save some calories. Yummy either way!
Could you use frozen gnocchi instead of the kind you used?
Frozen gnocchi should be fine. Enjoy!
I surprised my picky husband with this recipe tonight. He absolutely loved it. I used a different sausage that was made from pork and chicken. ~
I made this tonight. My husband thought it tasted very strong. Perhaps it was the baby kale. I thought it was ok, but made a huge amount of dirty dishes–three pots–for a result that does not look or taste like the amount of effort. For other cooks, if you drain the sausage and kale on paper towels, you can wipe out the skillet and use it to make the cream sauce. That way you only have the skillet and the pasta pot for washing up.
Absolutely wonderful. A huge hit with the hubby. I used half and half with 1 tbs of flour. and I added some Marzanno tomatoes. I also used half a cup of Mozz and 1/2 cup of parm and split between mixing it in and topping. Other than that, it was exactly as stated.
I don’t care how many pots and pans a dish uses when it tastes this FREAKIN delicious! I use got Italian turkey sausage. Man o’ Manischewitz this is one satisfying dish!
What can I substitute for the pesto sauce?
This was very tasty. I followed except for maybe less cheese. Hubby really enjoyed. I think next time I will use spinach or some other green leaf. I was concerned about flavor as there was only the pesto and garlic. It was perfect! I used basil pesto. It would be nice to know nutritional values. Thanks for a greAt easy meal!
You are welcome!