Gnocchi with bacon, leeks, fresh tomatoes and Parmesan tossed around with gnocchi. An extremely quick and delicious pasta dish.
I am happy to report that with only 10 days left until Christmas, I am officially finished with Christmas shopping. And right before a big snow storm too! So to celebrate my grand achievement {which has never happened before in my lifetime… EVER} I made a hella-delicious dish.
These cold days have me craving warm, savory comfort food {and cookies}. I literally sat with a bowl of this here goodness and watched my youngest daughter play outside in the snow. Oh to be that young and immune to the freezing temperatures. Then I started reorganized my Pinterest page while listening to Christmas music and enjoying the ambiance of my festively decorated living room. It was quite the cozy day to say the least. I could live that day on repeat for a week and not get tired of it one bit.
So this recipe literally only takes about 25 minutes. What took the longest was frying the bacon, but once that’s out of the way it moves very quickly.
Start by rinsing some grape tomatoes.
Slice them in half and quarter the larger ones. It’s about a cup of tomato halves.
Then in a skillet over medium heat, crisp up 4 strips of bacon and then use a slotted spoon to transfer it to a plate lined with paper towel.
Drain off all but two tablespoons of bacon fat and add in the leeks. This is one very large leek {about 1-1/2 to 2 cups, thinly sliced}.
The leeks cook quickly in the bacon fat so it should only take about 5 minutes. Remove the leeks to a bowl when they start to soften.
To a pot of boiling water, season with some salt and drop in a pound of gnocchi. Cook as directed on the package. Mine took about 2-3 minutes before they floated to the top, letting me know they’re done. Drain them into a colander…
… then immediately pop them into the skillet along with a teaspoon of olive oil. Once they start getting a little color to them…
Add in the leeks.
Tomato halves…
Next season with a LITTLE bit of kosher salt and A LOT of black pepper. There’s a lot of salty components in the dish so go easy on the salt {you might not even need any of it at all!}
Then add in the bacon.
Next add in the Parmesan cheese. Who doesn’t love Parmesan??
Simply toss it around to combine.
This makes for a perfect main dish. Try serving it up with a light side salad and maybe a glass of crisp white wine, hmm? Or pair it up as a side to chicken or a steak even, and you’ve got yourself a perfect meal to warm you up on these cold, winter nights.
Enjoy! And if you give this recipe a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!
Pan-Toasted Gnocchi with Bacon, Leeks and Fresh Tomato
Ingredients
- 4 slices applewood bacon, diced
- 1 pound gnocchi
- 1 leek, trimmed, halved and sliced thin (about 1-1/2 to 2 cups), rinsed well and patted dry
- 1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
- olive oil
- kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
- 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to boil.
- Meanwhile in a 10-inch skillet cook diced bacon over medium heat until crispy. Remove the crispy bacon with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with paper towel.
- Meanwhile slice, rinse, drain and towel-dry the leeks.
- Drain all but a tablespoon of the bacon fat and add in the sliced leeks. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the leeks start to turn soft. Remove the leeks to a nearby bowl.
- At the same time as the leeks, salt the water with a couple pinches of kosher salt and drop in the gnocchi. Cook as directed on the packager {usually around 2-3 minutes} they should float to the top.
- Drizzle a little bit {about a teaspoon} of olive oil into your skillet and add the drained gnocchi. Toast them for a few minutes and once they start to get a little color, add in the leeks, sliced fresh tomatoes, pepper, bacon and a 1/4 cup of freshly grated Parmesan.
- Toss and serve immediately with more parmesan if desired.
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Yay for you finishing p and right before the storm, what perfect timing!
This gnocchi look incredible! Seriously yum!
Thank you Emma! It definitely feels good to be ahead of the game 🙂
oooh! This looks so delicious Laurie! Really beautiful photo 🙂
I love gnocchi so much… My go-to gnocchi recipe is just a lo-hot of gorgonzola dolce, melted into a creamy sauce (nothing else) and gnocchi swimming in cheesy goodness.
I will definitely try your recipe though, because it is just so different from what I usually do with them!
I’m hoping Santa will bring me a gnocchi board so I can make them from scratch 😉 Happy Monday!
Actually I also have a question: I see that you used a cast iron skillet for this recipe. I have one too, but the first time I cooked bacon in there, it completely stuck to the bottom and was a shapeless mess when I managed to scratch it off… I must say that I had not used any extra fat, because when i usually cook bacon in non stick pans, the bacon fat renders enough to get it crispy. I’ve used the skillet dry for steak since, and didn’t have such a messy problem, but I’m scared to use it again for bacon. Do you think it was because it wasn’t yet seasoned properly? If not, any advice on how to get bacon to not stick?
It could be that the skillet wasn’t seasoned enough, because cast iron is supposed to be naturally non-stick, right? It’s hard to say but I keep a jar of {strained} bacon fat in the fridge, you could always take a little scoop of that out and add it to the pan before you fry up bacon… hopefully that helps! 🙂
Thanks Laurie! That was my hypothesis too (not seasoned enough). I will try again with a little extra fat in the skillet (I also keep bacon fat in a jar hehe – who wouldn’t?!). Cannot wait to try this recipe!
I love gnocchi. It is so good with anything!
Wow, this looks fantastic! I recently tried gnocchi for the first time and loved it, so this looks like a delicious spin on it.
What a great recipe and I love ALL the ingredients! My little one would totally gobble this up as well.
Get it, girl! There is no better way to celebrate than with food. This dish looks amazing. Pinned.
I adore gnocchi! But you had me at bacon and leeks! Love!
My eyeballs are having the best time right now.
If only I were eating this right now!! Oh my gosh, I would be so happy! Such a gorgeous meal. Love the leaks with the gnocchi!
This looks hearty and homey. I wish I had a bowl full right now!
FYI – Including this recipe in my Best of the Blogs: Christmas Recipes roundup today! keep an eye out for it
Thanks Christine!
Hella deee lish is right!! OH my this looks so good! drooling. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and here’s wishing you a happy New Year! xooxox
I love your blog – what delicious recipes. I made the Gnocchi recipe the other night and my husband and I absolutely loved it! Thanks for sharing it!
Thank you Reagan! I’m so glad 🙂
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Why don’t you make the gnocchi from scratch? It’s also really easy, although a bit time consuming. Definately making these, though (with home-made gnocchi).
And I’ve just dicovered your blog- it’s really great.
Great question! To be honest I don’t have a recipe and I haven’t really set out to test a gnocchi recipe either. If you have a great one and are willing to share it I’d be honored to try it! {feel free to inbox me in the “contact me” section on the top tabs of my blog}. Thanks for stopping by Joanna 🙂
How do you think this would turn out if I used some frozen ravioli in place of gnocchi? That’s the only ingredient on this list I don’t have!
Hi Christina! It’s hard to say without testing it. The ravioli may tear when it hits the hot pan, but if you’re feeling adventurous then I say go for it 🙂
Got a chance to make this tonight and it was amazing! My husband is a carnivore, but even he agreed it made a wonderful and filling main dish. This is definitely going on my recipe rotation!!
Must be done with grape/ cherry tomatoes, and it’s not a good idea to sub in bigger size tomatoes, as they have way too much juice 🙁 Don’t ask me how I know;) Great recipe, though, if you do it right:)
Oh darn! A+ for effort!
Thanks! I did do it right once, and that’s how I know it’s good:) Just this time grape tomatoes weren’t on sale so I figured I can try Roma instead, but not so much:( The whole dish ended up way too juicy/ saucy. We still ate it, just wasn’t as great as the other time.
I tried this today. Since the tomatoes weren’t looking too good, I subbed them with Champignons. It was really really good. 🙂 Good thing I only made half the amounts as a test, since I have the other half to do later this week.