Creamy Italian Gnocchi with Sausage, Mushrooms, and Spinach

Creamy Italian Gnocchi with Sausage, Mushrooms, and Spinach is a quick and easy 30-minute one-pot meal that will impress your family, friends, and guests! The delicious potato dumplings are smothered in a flavorful homemade cream sauce that features garlic, paprika, red pepper flakes, and juices from hot Italian sausage!

Ingredients

Mushrooms

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 large portobello mushrooms diced

Sausage

1 tablespoon olive oil

19 oz hot Italian sausage links (casings removed - I used 5 sausage links)

Gnocchi

16 oz potato gnocchi

½ cup chicken broth

1 cup heavy cream or half-and-half

4 cloves garlic minced

½ teaspoon Italian seasoning or Herbs from Provence

½ teaspoon paprika or more

5 oz fresh spinach

salt to taste

coarsely ground black pepper to taste

red pepper flakes to taste

Instructions

Cook mushrooms

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large, high-sided, heavy-bottomed skillet. Add half of the diced mushrooms (seasoned generously with salt and pepper) and cook them on high heat for about 1 or 2 minutes, until lightly browned and softened. Remove them to a plate.

Cook sausage

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the same, now empty, skillet over medium heat. Remove sausage from the casings and slice it.

Add the sliced sausage to the skillet and cook on medium heat for about 4 minutes on one side, without turning, to get the sausage slices browned. Flip over to the other side and cook for 2 more minutes.

Add uncooked gnocchi to the sausage and brown it lightly on medium heat for about 1 or 2 minutes.

Make creamy sauce

In the same skillet as the sausage and gnocchi, add chicken broth, heavy cream, minced garlic, Italian seasoning, and paprika. Then, add the remaining half of the uncooked mushrooms.

Stir and bring to a boil on medium heat. Cover with a lid, and simmer the gnocchi for about 5 minutes on medium or low-medium heat.

Add fresh spinach, and cook on low-medium heat, stirring frequently, for 5 more minutes until it wilts to your liking.

Cook longer if you want a thicker sauce (this is especially true if you use a half-and-half or thinner dairy-free milk alternative).

Assembly

Season with salt and freshly ground coarse black pepper, red pepper flakes, and smoked paprika, if needed.

Top with the remaining half of the cooked mushrooms.