Italian Spicy Sausage & Kale Gnocchi Casserole
{ COOKING VIDEO }
I’ve come to adore time by myself. Don’t get me wrong, my husband is awesome. And he’s super quiet so sometimes it’s like he’s not even around. And he even tries his best to not put football on much anymore because he knows it annoys the living hell out of me. But when he randomly decides to go out and I stay behind at home, I get to do, eat, and lay down wherever I want. You see, my husband eats healthier than me sometimes. Friday night will roll around and the LAST thing I want to do is cook anything. So I’ll ask him if he wants to get a gluten free pizza. His response: how about we make some salmon. Uh, no thank you. (Obviously salmon is sore subject after last weeks stomach flu situation, but that’s besides the point) It’s Friday night, I’m going HAM. So when my husband went out with his friends on Saturday night and I had the whole house to myself, I made a gluten free pizza, snacked on some chocolate, sprawled out on the couch and watched a chick flick. It was wonderful. It’s the little things.
Speaking of little things, it’s, like, ALMOST CHRISTMAS!! Luckily, we’ve kind of sworn off gifts at this point. How I see it, if I want something, I’m going to work my ass off to make it happen. And if I can’t buy it for myself, than maybe I don’t deserve it yet. I don’t want my loved ones spending money on me. Maybe that’s because I just don’t care about presents much, but I would rather them save their money and go do cool sh*t with it. Or go out to eat with me. Going to a cool new restaurants means 478932 times more to me than a present. Except for Jackson. That was a pretty effing badass present.
So nowadays, we just do a little white elephant gift exchange. Gifts must be under $100. So I need to go find a little something this week for the gift exchange because I haven’t even thought it through! I suck. Any ideas?!
And PS – I apologize that these photos aren’t my best work. I had to make this dish while writhing in pain from the stomach flu so just not dying was the goal of this photo shoot. But I can promise you, this dish is a must! And it’s incredibly easy to make!
Italian Spicy Sausage & Kale Gnocchi Casserole
- Yield: 4-5 1x
Ingredients
- 1 package Cappello’s Grain Free Gnocchi
- 1 pound hot italian sausage
- 1 bundle kale, minced
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1/4 cup coconut milk
- 1/4 cup chicken bone broth
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8×8 baking dish.
- Follow directions on package to cook gnocchi then drain and set aside. (you’ll want to rinse off the gnocchi to keep it from sticking together too much)
- Place a large saute pan over medium heat and add sausage. Use a wooden spoon to break up sausage. Cook until no longer pink and slight brown and crispy. Then add the kale to cook for 2-3 minutes, until wilted.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together tomato paste, honey, coconut milk, broth, salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes.
- Add gnocchi to pan then pour the liquid mixture from the bowl into the pan. Mix until all is coated. Pour all ingredients into greased dish and place in the oven to bake for 15 minutes.
- Serve up! Hope you love it!
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63 thoughts on “Italian Spicy Sausage & Kale Gnocchi Casserole”
I love time to myself too! That Friday night sounds awesome, haha. And who cares if the photos aren’t your best – they still look freaking amazing and the dish sounds BOMB. Can’t wait to try it!
I used to do that all the time before we had kids. Nothing better than vegging out with some yummy food and a chick flick when you are home by yourself, especially after a hard week at the gym when your body is tired, or busy week at work.
Recipe looks amazing! I had normal gnocchi at a restaurant recently. I never, ever eat pasta when we go out but just felt like gnocchi. So I enjoyed every mouthful. Stomach felt like crap that night and the following day but it was worth it.
haha sometimes it’s worth it!
We don’t do gifts either, in fact, I bought the coolest thing over the weekend. It’s a gift, but it’s a gift for us! Basically, I paid 50 bucks (they normally charge 99 so I was getting a deal ha ha ) then you get 50 free meals (buy one get one free) at all these local restaurants. So basically you pay $50 bucks for 50 buy one get one free entree meals! So I figured it was an US gift!
PS Loved your last podcast. My vet told me that when dogs yawn it might mean they are nervous not tired. Maybe yawning is your verbal pause because you don’t really say uh or um or anything like that! This is what I think about when I walk the dog and listen to your podcast lol
hahahaha maybe!!
The pictures are still beautiful- Can’t wait to make this and hope you’re feeling better.
My family does white elephant as well. My wife and I try to bring one serious gift and one funny gift. Last year, our funny gift was a squatty potty with poo pourri and a poop diary. It was actually more popular than I expected but did get a lot of laughs as well. This year our funny gift is going to be a Donald Trump starter pack (hat, shirt, bumper sticker, a button with recorded phrases, etc) and our serious gift is going to be an Amazon Dot + gift card unless I can get my hands onto one of those coveted NES Classic Editions.
Oh yeah, the food. Looks amazing, but go figure I don’t have any capellos gnocchi but I did find a grocery store 30 minutes away that carries it. Time to go for a drive. I’ll make a bulk order using your link soon.
Rob
i totally gave a squatty potty for a white elephant last year and ended up getting it when someone else stole my gift lol!
When you list coconut milk does that mean the liquid part of what’s in the can?
it means you mix both the cream and liquid together then measure it out!
the Gnocchi is $106?!?!
★★★★★
if you simply look at the title of the product, it says that it’s for 6 packages. but you could also just make your own, as well!
Hi Juli! Our house is a big fan of your yummy meals at dinner time ! Thank you for sharing ! We just made the gnocchi casserole and it was AMAZING!! The sauce was delicious and we had enough for leftovers tomorrow! Looking forward to future recipes !
★★★★
yay!! so glad to hear it!!
Oh my gosh! Just made this! Had to travel a bit for the gnocchi. It was amazing. Not a single part of it that wasn’t delicious. That sauce is really incredible. You’ve done it again!
awesome!! so glad you loved it!
It’s like you knew I had packages of capello’s gnocchi in my freezer and ALL of the other ingredients as well. This is perfect. Thank you!
White elephant gift under $100? Amazon’s Alexa! It’s only $40-50 (can’t remember), and it’s like Siri but way way better. If you like a little robot in your house, that is.
And yes. Time by myself. To do whatever I like. Cue angelic chorus.
Thanks for still posting your awesomeness, even being so sick.
★★★★
thanks for trying the recipe out, erica!
^^^ I kept trying to give it 5 stars, but my phone wouldn’t let me.
Hi juli! Thank you so much for all the great things you share. I’m making the gnocchi now, and my husband and I looooved the spaghetti pie. I’m killin it in the kitchen lately thx to you!
Side note: I also love your colorful language and amazing fashion skillz
Thank you for all the inspiration!! Happy holidays to you and your family.
Mary
thanks for the love, mary!
This recipe was SO GOOD. I used Trader Joe’s Frozen Gorgonzola Gnocchi instead, and took out half the gorgonzola cheese. It was beyond delicious. Even my picky husband asked me to put this in the weekly rotation. 🙂 Thank you!
yummmmm gorgonzola is the best!
I’d love to make this, but am currently doing the Whole30. Do you have a substitution recommendation for the honey?
you could just remove the honey, it will just taste a little different. i don’t know much about whole30 anymore but i do remember that you aren’t suppose to eat “baked goods” items and i would think that the gnocchi in this would fall under that category. not sure, but just wanted to mention that.
Juli, this recipe is amazing!! So so good. I am definitely trying it with the gorgonzola gnocchi suggested above–YUM!
★★★★★
This looks amazing! Do you have any recommendations for a pasta similar to this for those with almond allergies? I’ve seen the bean-based pastas in the grocery store, just not sure if they’re worth the hefty price tag.
if you tolerate rice, you could always do a rice pasta instead!
Hi Juli! Could I use cooked spaghetti squash instead of gnocchi?!
sure
This was amazing. Even my husband who isn’t a kale fan loved it.
★★★★★
All elements are great on their own, but the whole does not equal the sum of the parts unfortunately. The sauce did not quite bring any of this together. I’m not sure why but I won’t be trying this one again unfortunately. I had such high hopes too.
★★
that’s too bad, sorry you felt that way, Chris
Do you have the nutritional information for this?
★★★★★
i do not
This recipe was fantastic. My husband works late so I was quite thrilled when I received the text from him that “This pasta is ridiculous!”, followed up by a “I can’t believe how good this is!”. I could have honestly loved it just the same swapping the gnocchi out for potato chunks with the skin on. I substituted mild italian sausage which left me feeling like I should have used the spicy version the recipe called for. The sauce was delicious!
★★★★★
awesome!! so glad you both loved it!
This recipe is amazing! The first time I made it was for a dinner with my friends. They loved it and said the kale didn’t even taste like kale haha. I’ve also done it for a food exchange with some friends from my crossfit gym. We were doing a nutrition challenge similar to a whole 30 so I had to make some tweaks – made my own version of Italian sausage with ground turkey, left out the honey and roasted some sweet potatoes to sub for the gnocchi and also add back some sweetness. It was great! I’m so happy I found this – I make it at least twice a month, but find myself craving it more often.
Thanks for the recipe! I Enjoyed this, but if I make it again, I will cut the amount of sausage in half. The flavors are great but the kale/gnocchi bites are best, and the recipe would be more healthy that way.
★★★★
This is awesome! I’ve made it several times, one of my husbands favorite meals I make. Usually I’m kinda a lazy cook, but this is definitely worth dirtying 3 pans to make!
glad you both love it!!
I made this tonight with Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi- DELISH! Thank you for another winning recipe!
obsessed with that gnocchi right now! i have 3 bags in my freezer at the moment haha!
If you make it with the TJ’s gnocchi, do you use it from frozen? or cook them first? thanks.
cook them first
oh yay, thanks for posting sarah!! I was just wondering if it would work with the TJ’s cauli gnocchi!!
Could you use cauliflower gnocchi in this?
yep!
Delicious!!! Juli you freakin brought the perfect comfort food to my world especially on this frigid cold day here in Colorado Springs! Perfection my dear! This is going to be on rotation at my house!
glad to hear it!
Do you think this would work well subbing the sausage for ground beef? I hate fennel more than anything haha!
absolutely, it just wont’ have near as much flavor so i would recommend adding some spices
I LOVE this recipe Juli and have made it several times and it keeps getting better! Question though– what do you do with the leftover ingredients? For example, the rest of the can of tomato paste or coconut milk? I hate wasting ingredients! LOL
i keep the tomato paste in the fridge for another recipe and i use the coconut milk in smoothies or chia seed pudding!
Oh my shit, this is so damn good!! Subbed trader joe cauliflower gnocchi, cuz I had it on hand. God daaaaamn, so flavorful!
If anyone else wants to use the cauli gnocchi, I highly suggest cooking (from frozen) in the microwave first, for 5 mins. Then searing in a cast iron skillet with butter or oil, so they get a little crisp to them. Prevents them from being a pile of mush.
Thanks again for another great recipe!!!
awesome!! glad you liked it Lynne!
Loved this meal! I haven’t cooked with spicy sausage in awhile and this hit the spot. Will definitely be making this again. Curious have you tried freezing this meal?
i have not!
I love this dish! I’ve actually made it like 5 times in the past month. Super easy and very filling. When I initially made this my WF didn’t have the paleo gnocchi in stock, but I had the Trader Joe’s Cauliflower gnocchi. I followed all directions and found the cauli gnocchi were very mushy.
So my solution was simply adding the frozen cauli gnocchi to the sausage and kale giving it a stir to break up frozen gnocchi buddies, then adding the sauce and making sure everything is coated. And putting it in the oven for 20 mins. It all comes out perfect! I also just use my cast iron pan for the shebang! Less mess. I also make a double batch because the whole fam loves it! Thank you for this awesome recipe!!!
Love this dish! Super easy and so delicious!!
awesome!! glad you liked it Johnna!
This recipe is amazing. My husband did not even want to try it at first. Now it’s one of our favorite meals and we are obsessed! We eat it every other week. We made a few additions that make it even better- mushrooms, onion, and zucchini! And we double the sauce recipe. Best meal ever. Thank you for this recipe!!!
awesome!! so glad to hear you love it Liz!!