Gnocchi, white bean, and sun-dried tomato skillet

Sorry for the lull in posts. We recently moved and I was a little busy packing up the house and moving. I still tried to make new dishes throughout the process so that I would have something to share when we got settled into our new place. This is a recipe that I found online. It's easy, quick to make, and doesn't take much prep work.

I love gnocchi. I used to make my own a lot but, well, when you're in the process of moving, the last thing you have time and energy for is making things from scratch. This recipe is pretty much the easiest recipe I've ever done. I used a can of beans, Julienne sun-dried tomatoes, and even used packaged frozen spinach. The only thing I really did was slice mushrooms and then cook everything. I will admit that I did forget a lot of ingredients when making this though. I blame the move. You will see in the pictures that they are not all the same. I was picking at the dinner as it was cooking (I found out that sauteed gnocchi with a little salt and pepper is DELICIOUS!) and I think, to me, it tasted great, and then I plated it. It wasn't until a few bites in that I realized it was missing the beans. Then I saw the package of sundried tomatoes sitting on the counter and quickly added those too. So, I suppose if you don't have everything on hand and still want to make this, you can. I think as long as you have the gnocchi, you will be good.  ;)

Aside from forgetting to add all the ingredients to the dish on the first go, this was a no-brainer. There's no fancy cooking involved and it was hearty and delicious, which was exactly what we needed after a day of extreme packing. The only downside to this dish is that it's not that great warmed up the next day. I mean, when you first make it, the gnocchi is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. However, once it's sat in the refrigerator, it looses that crispiness. So, it wasn't that it tasted bad the next day, it just didn't have the same texture it did when it was fresh. I still enjoyed the leftovers but missed the crispiness of the gnocchi.

recipe adapted from Sweet Peas and Saffron


18 oz packaged gnocchi
1-2 tablespoons olive oil salt and pepper
¼-1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
 2 cups mushrooms, sliced
⅓ cup sun-dried tomatoes, diced
4 cups loosely packed spinach [I used 1 (10 oz) packed of frozen spinach, thawed]
1 (15 oz) can white beans, drained and rinsed
 Parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Heat oil in a medium pan over medium heat. 
2. Add the gnocchi and separate them. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and red pepper flakes, and cook, stirring occasionally for 8-10 minutes, or until golden and slightly crispy. 
3.  Remove from pan. 
4. Add the mushrooms, and cook for 3 or so minutes until soft (add additional olive oil if needed). Return the gnocchi to the pan and add the sun-dried tomatoes, spinach and white beans. Stir until spinach is wilted and everything is heated through. 
5. Add additional salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste. 
6. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.