Baked Vodka Sauce Gnocchi with Burrata.
This baked vodka sauce gnocchi is such a dream meal! A super saucy, delicious vodka sauce baked full of cloud-like gnocchi pillows, topped with burrata cheese. Baked until bubbly and melty and delicious!
HELLO lover.
There are no other words. Saucy baked gnocchi with tons of melty burrata cheese, lots of parmesan and all the flavor?
I am so here for it.
This is my Valentine’s Day dream. Actually, this dish is my valentine. Yes. That’s how it goes.
Baked gnocchi is such a fantastic dish. Those little potato pillows are like clouds swimming in sauce and covered with cheese. It comes second only to our favorite sheet pan gnocchi dish, which is just too easy to pass up.
The other baked gnocchi I make often is this sun dried tomato version. Ohhhh is it wonderful too. And so easy!
I don’t ever cook the gnocchi when I’m making this dish. It goes right into the oven in the sauce and cooks so super quickly, that you don’t need to worry about boiling it before. Simple!
So here’s how I do it!
I make a batch of my vodka pasta sauce. Which we looooooove. I make it all the time. It’s a big request in this house.
Then I toss the (uncooked) gnocchi right in the sauce. Sometimes I do a pound of regular gnocchi and a pound of mini. I love the mix! I top it with a few balls of burrata cheese, torn apart of course. Some parmesan.
Bake it until bubbly and melty and cheesy.
This is pure cozy comfort food. It screams it’s-cold-outside-and-I-need-a-saucy-pasta-blanket. With extra cheese.
I love baked pasta dishes like this for a few reasons. First, they are obviously delicious. Second, they can be a side dish OR a main dish. I love that about them. Serve with a big salad and some bread for a whole meal.
Or serve alongside some roasted chicken and vegetables as a side.
This is also a great way to please everyone during dinner! When I make something like this, it’s usually divided up that way in our family. A few of us eat it as the meal, others eat it as the side. It’s perfect.
Of course, leftovers are delish. As usual.
This reminds me of some of my favorite gnocchi ever at one of our favorite restaurants. Lots of favorites today! The gnocchi bread bowl at DiAnoia’s is absolutely wild. Their gnocchi is huge, the soft pillows are so tender and fresh and it is literally swimming in the sauciest, cheesiest mixture all piled high in a bowl of BREAD.
Yes. In a bowl of bread. It’s indulgent and dreamy and so so fantastic.
This gnocchi reminds me so much of that – the creamy sauce, the melty cheese, all of it. It’s a must try!
Baked Vodka Sauce Gnocchi Recipe
Baked Vodka Sauce Gnocchi with Burrata
Ingredients
- 1 cup reserved pasta water, or substitution, listed below
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 shallot, diced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- kosher salt and pepper
- ½ cup tomato paste
- 3 tablespoons vodka, (I like Tito’s)
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
- ⅓ cup finely grated parmesan cheese, plus more for topping
- 2 pounds uncooked gnocchi
- 8 ounces burrata cheese, pulled apart
- fresh basil, for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- To make a starchy pasta water without cooking pasta, combine 1 cup of water with ½ teaspoon of cornstarch and ¼ teaspoon salt. Bring it to a boil in a saucepan, then turn off the heat!
- Heat the butter in a 10 to 12-inch oven-safe saucepan or skillet over medium heat. Once melted, stir in the shallots and garlic with a big pinch of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often, until the onions soften. Add in the tomato paste and stir, cooking for 5 minutes. The color will darken - this is where the flavor is!
- Stream in the vodka and stir, scraping the brown bits and flavor from the bottom. Stir in ½ cup of the reserved (or makeshift) pasta water. Stir in the heavy cream and parmesan, stirring until the cheese melts. Taste and season the sauce with more salt and pepper if needed.
- Stir in the uncooked gnocchi. Pull apart the burrata cheese and place it all over the gnocchi. Sprinkle with parmesan.
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the cheese is melty and bubbly. Serve, topped with parmesan and fresh basil.
Did you make this recipe?
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22 Comments on “Baked Vodka Sauce Gnocchi with Burrata.”
What gnocchi do you recommend? I’m skeptical of the dried kind near the all the other pasta.
i usually use the delallo brand or my local grocery store brand (giant eagle market district!).
Do you use frozen gnocchi or the kind you find on the shelf?
you can use either!! both work. i tend to use the shelf stable.
Telling my husband to grab some gnocchi on the way home because this dish needs to happen this weekend!
Silly question but do you think the sauce will work alright if I left out the vodka? Or is there a substitute you recommend? I’m 6 months pregnant and a neurotic first time mom, so trying to be extra careful in case not all the alcohol burns off in cooking.
Pretty much in any recipe with a dash of alcohol you can sub chicken/veggie stock without issue
For what it’s worth this recipe has about 1.5 shots in the entire recipe for 6 servings which comes down to about a quarter of a shot per serving which would be considered negligible amount of alcohol.
Not saying you have to make it as is, just giving you a more concrete number
yes, the vodka helps to create a silky sauce and sort of emulsifies it all together! it definitely works without – it may be a little looser and more like marinara. :) still delicious!
Thank you for providing me with the perfect Valentine’s day dinner! Two of my favorite ingredients. Gnocchi and burrata!
enjoy!!
Made this for a quick and easy dinner tonight. It was so yummy! Can’t wait to try more of your recipes!
Just wondering if I could substitute fresh tortellini for the gnocchi?
yes!
This looks so good! What are the chances I could add chicken? Fully or partially cooked?
i definitely think you can! i would add in cooked shredded chicken. rotisserie chicken would work great and be super easy.
Is there a substitute for the buratta?
you can just use fresh mozzarella!
Made this for dinner tonight. Once again another Jessica recipe that didn’t disappoint!
Is the sauce supposed to be super thick? I halved the recipe because I only had 1 lb of gnocchi but ended up thinning the sauce out with the whole cup of “pasta water.” And it still didn’t look quite as thin as in your picture. I threw it in the oven anyway. It still smelled great! Hopefully it turns out okay!
This was so easy and SO good! I just used plain water for the sauce and it was perfectly smooth. Also did only a pound of gnocchi (what we had) and it was still perfect.
Wow! This was absolutely fantastic! So flavorful and really easy! I only had a 1lb box of gnocchi, but it was perfect! I added some red pepper flakes to the sauce for a little kick, as we like things spicy. This dish was a huge hit!
Roughly how much vodka sauce does this recipe make?
This was INSANELY good. I only had a pound of gnocchi so I used a can of chickpeas in addition to a pound of gnocchi.