This week’s dinner menu includes seven dinners using what we have on hand. I need to clean out the pantry and refrigerator to make room for Thanksgiving. The turkey alone will fill an entire shelf of my fridge! By the time I stock up with ingredients for making sides, we’ll be overflowing! Cleaning out (and using up) is almost a necessity over the next two weeks.
Planning a menu around what you have on hand is a little like the Food Network show, Chopped. If you’ve never watched the show, the contestants compete in making 30-minute dishes with what is on hand in the pantry plus 3-4 mystery ingredients. Sometimes the gourmet dishes they come up with are mind blowing.
While cooking seven meals with what I have on hand is a fun challenge, I guarantee it isn’t always gourmet. In fact, if anything, I’d say this week’s menu is more “comfort food” than Michelin star.
When I was taking inventory and menu planning, I noticed a package of potato gnocchi in the fridge. I decided it could be the foundation for one night’s dinner. I wasn’t sure what that meal would be, but I’d come up with something on “gnocchi day.”
As you probably guessed at this point, today was gnocchi day on the menu, so into the kitchen I went. With no clear plan in sight, I pulled the gnocchi from the fridge. In there I also found a block of cream cheese that was about to expire, an open package of bacon ends, and some Parmesan that needed to be used, STAT. I went into the pantry and found an open bag of julienned sun dried tomatoes that only had about a 1/4 cup left and was taking up valuable space. Dinner was starting to come together. I decided I’d make a mash up of four favorite Italian dishes: Fettuccini Alfredo, Carbonara, Lasagna and Gnocchi.
One the things that I love about carbonara is the bacon goodness. So for this dish I began by cooking the chopped bacon and rendering down the fat. I had bacon ends and pieces on hand, but sliced bacon will work just as well. (Maybe even a little better since it is fattier!)
To the sauce pan I added in milk, cream cheese, garlic and spices to start a sauce that was a nod to Alfredo (a household favorite!), but a little more garlic-y. I kept the garlic pretty tame in the recipe, but trust me, we like our garlic around this house. No vampires are paying us a visit.
As I mentioned in a previous post, gnocchi is another family favorite. My 9-year-old can’t get enough of the little potato pillows when I make my roast gnocchi for dinner. I prefer baked gnocchi–and honestly I didn’t want to clean another pot–so I tossed them into the sauce with the sun dried tomatoes.
Lasagna–a good Italian lasagna, not the American’ized “ricotta” kind–is also popular at our house. There is just something so comforting and heavenly about baked pasta and cheese. So, again, as a little nod to another favorite, I decided tonight’s gnocchi surprise needed to be topped with more cheese and baked.
I’m calling the dish, “Creamy Garlic Gnocchi Bake,” but it could also be referred to as, “yummy goodness.” It is basically Italian-inspired comfort food. Perfect for a cool fall evening like tonight. I paired it with some steamed veggies. However, a salad and garlic bread would also be fantastic!
Give this easy dish a try and let me know what you think below. I know I’ll definitely be making it again–even when I don’t need to clean out the pantry and fridge!
Creamy Garlic Gnocchi Bake
Course: DinnerCuisine: Italian AmericanDifficulty: Easy4
servings5
minutes40
minutes551
kcalCreamy Garlic Gnocchi Bake is a dish that is light on dishes and big on flavor! This easy pasta bake takes its inspiration from some of my Italian favorites: Fettuccine Alfredo, Carbonara, Lasagna and Gnocchi. With its creamy, garlic sauce and pillow-y gnocchi, it is sure to be a family favorite at your house too.
Ingredients
4 ounces bacon, diced
4 ounces cream cheese
1 cup whole milk
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pinch nutmeg
4 ounces grated Parmesan, divided
Salt and pepper
1 16-ounce package potato gnocchi
1/2 ounce sun dried tomatoes, julienned
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Coat a 9-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a medium sauce pan, cook bacon over medium heat. Cook until fat begins to render and turn frothy, about 10 minutes.
- To the bacon, add in cream cheese, milk, garlic powder, garlic and nutmeg. Cook over medium heat until cheese is melted, stirring frequently to prevent scalding of milk. About 5-10 minutes.
- Stir 3 ounces of Parmesan into sauce and continue to cook until cheese melts, about 5 minutes more. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
- Add sun dried tomatoes and gnocchi into the sauce. Stir to coat then transfer to prepared baking dish. Top with mozzarella and remaining Parmesan.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.
