Roasted Tomato & Mascarpone Gnocchi

Ingredient Notes

These are all easily available ingredients which can be sourced from Aldi. In other supermarkets, you can find many of these items in the budget ranges and you do not need the top quality stuff to make this recipe work well.

• Gnocchi: Dried shelf stable gnocchi.
• Tomatoes: Baby plum or cherry tomatoes. We roast them with lots of flavor boosters so winter tomatoes, or cheaper tomatoes, will work out fine here.
• Balsamic vinegar: For roasting the tomatoes in.
• Honey: adds sweetness to the tomatoes; you can leave this out if you are working with some amazing peak summer tomatoes.
• Italian mixed herbs: if you don’t have a mix, just throw in some basil, some oregano, some thyme, whatever you have to work with.
• Mascarpone: the star ingredient that turns the roasted tomatoes into a decadent sauce in just a matter of minutes. You can replace it with normal cream if you need to (it will just end up a little runnier) or even cream cheese (it will have a tangier flavor).
• Cheddar cheese: You can of course use some kind of parmesan style cheese for a more proper Italian finish, but I find cheddar adds a lot of flavor for a lower cost so I’m very happy to use it here.
• Fresh basil: adds a beautiful fresh flavor, but you can leave it out if you need to, or replace with parsley.

Tips and Variations

• We are going to oven roast the gnocchi and it doesn’t need to be pre-boiled first. It’s really up to you how crispy you want to go with your gnocchi. My preference for this recipe is just 15 minutes in the oven, so the gnocchi is very lightly browned. It still has some bite to it, and doesn’t just melt into the sauce, but is still very soft. Another 10 minutes and you would have deeper brown crispy gnocchi, much more chewy with a distinct crunch to it, almost like it had been fried. And then there is a whole middle ground. Neither is right or wrong, so go with what works for you. If you prefer to cook your gnocchi longer, this recipe allows for that, just take the tomatoes out of the oven when they’re done and make your sauce a little earlier. No problem.
• If you’re concerned with the amount of mascarpone in this sauce, I hear you! It’s a lot. You can see from the photos how creamy and decadent this sauce gets so I kinda love it this way, but you could absolutely make it with half the amount of mascarpone and the sauce will still turn out great.
• Let’s discuss adding veggies. Always a solid idea. Treat this as a base recipe you can build upon. For a hit of green, try adding some frozen peas or spinach leaves to the sauce when you add the mascarpone. You can also add veggies to roast alongside the tomatoes. Mushrooms, zucchini, peppers, whatever you like. This is very saucy and can handle some extra “stuff” in the mix.