Recipe: Butternut squash plus tomatoes plus gnocchi for the win
Potato gnocchi roasted with vegetables and sausage makes an easy one-pan meal. Kathy Morrison
So it’s cool enough to cook dinner in the oven, but still nice enough that I don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen. Garden things to do outside, you know.
The solution: A sheet-pan meal, in which all the ingredients roast together in the oven.
This dish is a riff on a recipe from thekitchn.com. Substitutions are easy: I had Juliet tomatoes but no mushrooms, so into the pan they went. Broccoli cut small would work or green beans or whatever, but don’t forget to include onions.
Gnocchi cooked in the oven is far superior in flavor and texture to boiled gnocchi. It puffs up and gets just a bit crispy – delightful.
Sheet pan gnocchi with vegetables and sausage
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 small butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks
1 small or ½ large red onion, cut into 1-inch chunks
8 ounces mushrooms, quartered, or 8-12 ounces grape or cherry tomatoes
1 package (1 pound or more) shelf-stable potato gnocchi
1 to 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped
8 to 16 ounces uncooked hot or sweet Italian sausage, in casings or bulk
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese, for serving
Instructions:
Arrange two oven racks to split the oven into thirds. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
On a large rimmed baking pan, combine the butternut chunks, the onion and the mushrooms or tomatoes (or use both!). Sprinkle the rosemary over the vegetables, and add the gnocchi to the pan. Drizzle the olive oil over the pan, then sprinkle with about ½ teaspoon of salt and grinding of black pepper. Toss to coat.
Remove the sausage from its casings and drop bite-size chunks of it all over the vegetables and gnocchi.
Place the sheet pan on the lower rack of the oven. Roast for about 25 minutes, stirring after about 15 minutes. The sausage should be cooked through, the gnocchi plumped and the butternut chunks tender.
Move the sheet pan to the upper rack and broil on High until the gnocchi are lightly brown and crisp. This happens quickly, about 3 minutes, so don’t walk away.
Serve in large bowls and topped with grated Parmesan, if desired. A salad and a glass of zinfandel are perfect accompaniments.
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Garden Checklist for week of April 21
This week there’s plenty to keep gardeners busy. With no rain in the immediate forecast, remember to irrigate any new transplants.
* Weed, weed, weed! Get them before they flower and go to seed.
* April is the last chance to plant citrus trees such as dwarf orange, lemon and kumquat. These trees also look good in landscaping and provide fresh fruit in winter.
* Smell orange blossoms? Feed citrus trees with a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants.
* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.
* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.
* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden is really hungry. Feed shrubs and trees with a slow-release fertilizer. Or mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost.
* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.
* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.
* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.
* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.
* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, radishes and squash.
* Plant onion sets.
* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias.
* Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.
* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom.
* Mid to late April is about the last chance to plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.
* Transplant lettuce seedlings. Choose varieties that mature quickly such as loose leaf.
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