Loaded Baked Potato Gnocchi
Gnocchi is a potato-based pasta. What goes great with potatoes? Just a few delicious ingredients like butter, sour cream, cheese, bacon, and chives. I decided to take these simple but mouthwatering ingredients and turn them into a delicious pasta dish - Loaded Baked Potato Gnocchi!
Dillon and I even decided to try and make homemade gnocchi for the first time! To be honest, this gnocchi did not taste better than store-bought to me. Not to mention, it added about an hour of extra time onto the recipe. However, it was a fun little challenge and I wanted to share the recipe with you in case you were up for the challenge too!
Loaded Baked Potato Gnocchi - the pasta dish you never knew you were missing.
RECIPE - yields 3-4 servings
TIME - Using store-bought gnocchi - 30 minutes / Making gnocchi - 90 minutes
Print Recipe
INGREDIENTS
Approximately 1 lb gnocchi (store-bought or make your own with this recipe)
8 oz diced pancetta
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh chives, sliced thin
3 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons butter
1 3/4 cups whole milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper (less if you don’t like pepper as much)
A pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup freshly grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup reserved pasta water
DIRECTIONS
Bring a pot of salted water to boil. (You may want to make it saltier than normal because of how quickly gnocchi cooks.)
While water is boiling, add a drizzle of olive oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the skillet is warm, add in pancetta and stir occasionally. Cook until golden and slightly crisped, about 5 minutes.
Remove from pan and set aside.
Wipeout any remaining pieces of pancetta from the pan.
Add 3 tablespoons butter to the skillet and melt over medium-high heat. Add in 3 tablespoons of flour. Stirring constantly, cook until flour is light brown, about 2 minutes.
Add in milk a third at a time and continue stirring until mixture is combined and there are no remaining chunks of flour/butter mixture, about 5 minutes. This is now a basic bechamel sauce.
Turn heat to low and stir in half the cheddar cheese, sour cream, and half the pancetta. Turn off heat.
Add gnocchi to boiling water. Unlike other kinds of pasta, both homemade and store-bought gnocchi cook in about 3 minutes.
Once the gnocchi is cooked, add it to the cheesy bechamel sauce mixture. (I added it directly from the pot with a spider).
Turn the heat back onto low and add in 1/4 cup reserved pasta water. Add up to another 1/4 cup until you get to your desired thickness.
Dish pasta into bowls and garnish with remaining cheese and pancetta, as well as fresh chives and fresh ground pepper.