Name: Gnocchi alla Sorrentina
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 4 cups gnocchi (see note); 1/4 cup olive oil; 3 large cloves of garlic, chopped; 1 1/2 cups store-bought or homemade tomato puree; 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt; 8 fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces; 4 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced; 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan; Chopped parsley for garnish (optional)

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Gnocchi alla Sorrentina is a simple dish with potato gnocchi, tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil. It’s hearty and fresh at the same time and very easy to make. With a few shortcuts, my version is on the table in 20 minutes.

I’ll spare you my usual swooning over Italian dishes as an introduction because, if you’ve been following along, you already know my love of pasta and pretty much anything Italian. Many, many of the pasta dishes I’ve shared over the years are either directly lifted from that amazing country or serve as the inspiration for something else. If you check out my pasta recipe collection, you’ll see what I mean.

And today it’s all about a simple gnocchi dish with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil otherwise known as gnocchi alla sorrentina. Like a lot of Italian dishes it’s named for the town from which it hails, in this case, Sorrento, a town located south of Naples.

It’s known as a summer dish and is often made with tomatoes fresh from the vine, and basil plucked from a tender sun-kissed plant, but if you allow for a little wiggle room, there’s no reason you can’t serve it year-round. It happens to be the dead of winter here now, and I just couldn’t wait until the summer to share it.

A Simple Tomato Sauce

You’ll find variations, but the common thread I’ve found among recipes is the very simple tomato sauce.

I like starting with a cold pan and adding olive oil and garlic. Turn the heat to medium and stir the garlic as the oil warms up. As soon as the garlic is fragrant and lightly sizzling in the oil, I add the tomato puree.

In the summer, people often use fresh tomatoes to make a passata or tomato puree and add garlic, salt, and fresh basil. Since my tomato plants died about three months ago, I use store-bought tomato puree. Muir-Glen makes an excellent one.

Bring the sauce to a simmer once you’ve added the tomato puree, salt, and basil. That’s it.

photo collage of the sauce and the gnocchi being added

About the Gnocchi

It is at this point I will probably lose the purists (byeee!) seeing as I took a massive shortcut with this recipe. Homemade gnocchi is on my to-do list, but I used store-bought gnocchi for ease (and, let’s face it, laziness). It has a bad reputation, and not all brands are created equal. I’ve had the best luck with Delallo gnocchi and am perfectly happy to use it if it means I can have gnocchi alla Sorrentina more often.

If you want a more adventurous experience, by all means, make your own.

Gnocchi cooks quickly in boiling water, and as soon as it floats to the top, it’s pretty much done. Transfer it to your pan with the sauce and we’re almost to the finish line.

Some transfer their gnocchi and sauce to a baking dish, but I use my oven-safe pan. Fewer dishes, happier life.

Just top the sauce and gnocchi with some sliced mozzarella cheese and pop it under the broiler until the cheese melts and gets toasty in spots.

photo of gnocchi in tomato sauce with melted cheese on top

Once it comes out of the oven, I like to top it with fresh basil, some grated Parmesan cheese, and a sprinkling of chopped parsley.

Whether it’s fall, winter, spring, or summer, I hope you love this easy recipe!

Happy cooking,

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