15-Minute Gnocchi Skillet
Refrigerated gnocchi go uncooked into the pan, and they become crispy on the outside.
- Preparation
- 5 min
- Cook/bake time
- 12 min
- Total
- 17 min
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Calories
- 985 kcal
- Servings
- 2
- Prep
- 5 min
- Cooking & baking
- 12 min
Refrigerated gnocchi go uncooked into the pan, and they become crispy on the outside. The trick not only saves you a pot, it also makes the dish better: boiled gnocchi are soft, while pan-fried ones have a crust and the same pillowy inside. Add cherry tomatoes, which break down in the pan and form their own sauce.
Why this works
Refrigerated gnocchi are already cooked, so they only need two minutes in water to get hot. That is exactly why pan-frying works: you skip a step that only provides heat anyway, and replace it with one that also provides a crust. The Maillard reaction on the potato starch requires a dry surface and patience for this. You must not touch the pan for the first three minutes, otherwise the crust will tear off before it is ready. The cherry tomatoes make the sauce in the meantime: their cell walls burst in the heat and release juice, which boils down together with the starch from the gnocchi into a creamy liquid.
Step-by-step instructions
- 1
Pan-fry the gnocchi and leave them alone
Heat two tablespoons of oil in a non-stick pan and add the uncooked gnocchi in a single layer next to each other. Now comes the hard part: do not touch them for three minutes. Only when the crust has formed can they be released without tearing.
- 2
Turn and add garlic
Toss the pan once and fry the gnocchi for another three minutes until they have golden spots all over. Add the garlic and oregano and let them fry for one minute. Do not fry them any longer, as garlic turns bitter in seconds.
- 3
Let the tomatoes break down
Add the halved tomatoes cut side down, salt them and press them open with the back of a spoon after four minutes. They release their juice, and this binds with the gnocchi starch to form a quick sauce. Add a little water if the pan runs dry.
- 4
Finish
Remove the pan from the heat, sprinkle the Parmesan over it and toss in the basil. The cheese melts in the residual heat and becomes stringy. On the stove, it would separate from the fat and become oily.
Our best tips
- Really put the gnocchi in the pan uncooked. They are already cooked, and the pot only brings water to the surface, which prevents the crust.
- Do not touch them for the first three minutes. A crust that is released too early stays in the pan instead of on the gnocchi.
- Add the cheese only after taking it off the stove. At full heat, the fat separates from the Parmesan and the sauce becomes oily instead of creamy.
Tasty variations
With spinach and ricotta
Toss in two handfuls of spinach leaves at the end and place a spoonful of ricotta per portion on top. The spinach wilts in the residual heat and adds color without additional cooking time.
With chorizo
First render 80 g of sliced chorizo, remove it and fry the gnocchi in its fat. Add it back in at the end. This gives the pan paprika, salt and fat all at once.
Nutrition facts
| Calories | 985 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 34 g |
| Carbohydrates | 155 g |
| – of which sugar | 9 g |
| Fat | 24 g |
| Fiber | 8 g |
Where the 985 kcal come from
per serving
Calculated from the ingredients – how we do it
We add up reference values for every ingredient and divide by the number of servings. These assumptions are baked in:
- Reference values per 100 g – for the raw ingredient, exactly as listed.
- Tinned goods count at drained weight, bone-in meat at purchase weight: you eat about 70 per cent of a chicken thigh and leave the rest.
- Water evaporates as you cook. The energy stays in the pot, the weight does not – so the figure is per serving, not per 100 g of finished dish.
- Anything listed without a quantity – “salt and pepper” – is not counted.
A guide value, not a lab measurement: no two onions weigh the same, and fat content varies from pack to pack.
Frequently asked questions
Does this also work with homemade gnocchi?
Only if they have been cooked and cooled beforehand. Raw gnocchi dough needs the water to cook through. In the pan, it would be dark on the outside and mealy on the inside. Cooked, drained gnocchi from the day before are ideal, as they are drier than store-bought ones.
My gnocchi are sticking to the pan.
Either too little oil, too many gnocchi at once or stirred too early. They need space in a single layer. With a small pan, it is better to fry them in two batches. And a non-stick pan is much more forgiving here than stainless steel.
Can I prepare the pan in advance?
Not recommended. The crust softens in the fridge within an hour, and it is exactly the reason for this recipe. It is a fifteen-minute dish, so preparing it in advance saves nothing here.
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