I got some lovely fresh herbs from my mom's garden at Thanksgiving. And I've been enjoying trying out different recipes to use them up. So far, I've been focusing on the parsley and rosemary. But I ran across this delicious-looking recipe for baked gnocchi with sage and decided to give that a try.

It's definitely not health food by any means, but it is easy and tastes fantastic!

Baked Gnocchi with Fontina, Pancetta, and Sage

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 125-250g pancetta¹, chopped
• 2-3 Tbsp. chopped fresh sage
• 1kg gnocchi
• 1 1/2 c. half-and-half (10% MF)
• 250g fontina cheese², cut into 5mm cubes
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/3 c. panko breadcrumbs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F) and grease a 23x33cm (9x13") lasagne pan.
2. Cook the pancetta over medium heat until crisp.
3. Drain off as much of the fat as possible, add the sage, and set aside.
4. Cook the gnocchi according to the package directions (or slighlty less).
5. Drain the gnocchi and add it to the pan with the pancetta along with the half-and-half, cheese, and pepper.
6. Stir to combine and pour the mixture into the prepared pan.
7. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and bake at 190°C (375°F) for 15-20 minutes.
8. It breadcrumbs are not sufficiently browned, place under the broiler for 2-3 minutes.

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¹ The original recipe called for 125g of pancetta, but we all really like pancetta here, so I decided to double it. That said, I do think that the smaller quantity would have been sufficient -- even if the bumped up amount was delicious! ^Back
2 The original recipe called for taleggio cheese. I couldn't find any at the grocery store, so I substituted fontina. I think oka probably also would have been good, but the fontina was cheaper and I was able to find a piece that was exactly the amount I needed, so I just went with that. ^Back