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Creamy Tomato Sausage Gnocchi
The epitome of comfort food
You can’t go wrong with gnocchi, sausage, parmesan and a creamy tomato sauce. It’s definitely an indulgent dish, but we all deserve a treat once in a while! I’ve used gnocchi but any type of pasta would work; orecchiette and rigatoni would work particularly well.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Pasta
Ingredients
Scale
- extra-virgin olive oil
- 500 g good-quality pork sausage meat
- 1 sweet onion (or white onion), finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 4 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves only, finely chopped
- 6 fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
- 2 tbsps double concentrated tomato purée
- 100 ml white wine
- 2 x 400 g tins good-quality whole tomatoes, hand-crushed (I use Mutti)
- 2 basil sprigs, whole
- 1 tsp sugar, optional
- 300 ml double cream
- 60 g grana padano or parmigiano reggiano, grated
- 1 small handful of fresh basil leaves, finely sliced
- 1 kg gnocchi
Instructions
- Heat a splash of extra-virgin olive oil in a large Dutch oven or pot over medium heat. Add the sausage meat and cook until browned, breaking it up with a wooden spoon or whisk (it works surprisingly well!), 3 to 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the browned sausage meat to a plate.
- Turn the heat down to medium. If necessary, add an extra splash of olive oil then add the onions. Season with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until nice and soft, around 5 minutes.
- Add the garlic, rosemary and sage and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
- Add the tomato purée and cook, stirring frequently, until it begins to darken, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the white wine and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is almost all evaporated, around 2 minutes. You want to scrape the bottom of the Dutch oven to incorporate any stuck bits into the sauce.
- Add the crushed tinned tomatoes, basil sprigs and sugar (if using) and 200 ml water. Season with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper. Return the sausage meat to the pot and stir to combine. Bring the sauce to a simmer.
- Reduce the heat to low and cover the pot, leaving the lid slightly ajar. Simmer for 1 hour.
- Add the double cream and stir to combine. Simmer, covered, for 5 minutes.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the cheese and basil and stir to combine. Adjust seasoning, to taste. Cover.
- Cook the gnocchi in boiling salted water. Drain and add to the sauce with a splash of the pasta cooking water. Stir until the sauce nicely coats the gnocchi. Serve and enjoy!
