Cheesy Pesto Baked Gnocchi with Butternut Squash and Kale

A cheesy pesto baked gnocchi filled with roasted butternut squash, baby kale, and topped with crispy parmesan breadcrumbs.

If you love melty cheese and gnocchi pillows smothered in creamy pesto then you have come to the right place!

Add in a bunch of seasonal veggies and the fact that this is made entirely in ONE PAN and you basically have my dream of a weeknight meal. There are crispy parmesan breadcrumbs too for texture and all around excellence. Just so darn good and everything I love in a pasta dish.

With this recipe, I can officially say I have come full circle in this pregnancy. I started out in the first trimester with a little gnocchi obsession and now here we are again with two months left to go.

There’s just something about those little potato pasta nuggets that I just can’t quit. Maybe it’s that I keep discovering new ways to cook them even in my advanced maternal age? 

I really can’t say, but I’m always up for a cheesy pasta bake that feeds a crowd and even more so when I don’t have to dirty every pot and pan in my house to make it.

So, how do we achieve this one-pan wonder?

We’ll start by roasting cubes of seasoned butternut squash in a baking dish. Halfway through cooking, the gnocchi are added to the pan along with a touch of water. The pan is covered tightly with foil so that the squash and the gnocchi can steam a bit in the heat and cook all the way through after a brief stint back in the oven.

While the gnocchi are cooking, pesto, ricotta, and heavy cream are mixed together to form the creamy but also totally bright and herbaceous mixture that will bind everything together. Once the gnocchi come out of the oven, this will be mixed into the pan with them along with handfuls of baby kale. The residual heat from the gnocchi will cook the kale and melt the ricotta mixture into a creamy sauce.

Finally, our pasta bake is topped with slices of fresh mozzarella and parmesan breadcrumb sprinkles, then popped into the oven one final time to toast the breadcrumbs and melt the cheese. 

So creamy cheesy crunchy in all the best ways.

Time to dig in!

Cheesy Pesto Baked Gnocchi with Butternut Squash and Kale

 

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A cheesy pesto baked gnocchi filled with roasted butternut squash, baby kale, and topped with crispy parmesan breadcrumbs.

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp olive oil, divided
• 1.5 lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into ½-inch cubes
• salt and black pepper, to taste
• 2 (1 lb) packages dried potato gnocchi
• 1 cup basil pesto
• 1 cup ricotta
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 5 oz baby kale
• ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
• ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
• 8 oz fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 450F.
2. Place the squash in a 9x13-inch baking dish. Toss with a tablespoon of the olive oil. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.
3. Carefully add the gnocchi and ½ cup water to the baking pan with the squash. Stir to combine. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, stir together the pesto, ricotta and heavy cream. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Set aside.
5. Pour a tablespoon of the remaining olive oil over the kale and massage until it has decreased in volume by about half. Set aside.
6. In a small bowl, mix together the panko, parmesan cheese, and remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil along with a pinch of salt. Set aside.
7. Remove the baking pan with the gnocchi and squash from the oven and uncover. Carefully stir in the pesto ricotta and massaged kale until well dispersed throughout the mixture. Top with the mozzarella slices and sprinkle with the breadcrumb mixture.
8. Place back in the oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and the breadcrumbs are golden. Allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Notes

An Eats Well With Others Original

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