Gnocchi with Chicken Sausage & Spinach
in a Cheesy Cream Sauce
- Milk
We’ve tried to be low-key about gnocchi… but we just can’t because it’s so good! Flexible and flavorful, you can mix these darling dumplings with just about anything for a super satisfying plate. Tonight’s dinner stars caramelized onion, wilted fresh spinach, and Italian-seasoned chicken sausage, coated in a savory cream sauce and topped with melty cheeses. Still not getting the hype? Trust us—all it takes is one bite.
Ingredients
9 ounce
Italian Chicken Sausage Mix
1 unit
Onion
1 unit
Chicken Stock Concentrate
2.5 ounce
Spinach
4 ounce
Cream Sauce Base
(Contains: Milk)
½ cup
Italian Cheese Blend
(Contains: Milk)
1 unit
Gnocchi
Not included in your delivery
1 teaspoon (tsp)
Sugar
2 teaspoon (tsp)
Cooking Oil
teaspoon (tsp)
Black Pepper
teaspoon (tsp)
Salt
1 tablespoon (tbsp)
Butter
(Contains: Milk)
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
• Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Wash and dry produce. • Halve, peel, and thinly slice onion. • Heat a large drizzle of oil in a large, preferably nonstick, pan over medium-high heat. Add onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and softened, 8-10 minutes. Add 1 tsp sugar (2 tsp for 4 servings) and a splash of water; cook until caramelized, 2-3 minutes more. Season with salt and pepper. Turn off heat; transfer to a plate. Wipe out pan.
• Once water is boiling, add gnocchi to pot. Cook until tender, 3-4 minutes. Reserve 2 cups gnocchi cooking water, then drain. • In a medium bowl, combine cream sauce base, stock concentrate, and ½ cup reserved gnocchi cooking water (1 cup for 4 servings). TIP: If sauce seems too thick, stir in a splash of gnocchi cooking water.
• Heat a drizzle of oil in pan used for onion over mediumhigh heat. Add sausage* and cook, breaking up meat into pieces, until browned and cooked through, 4-6 minutes. • Add gnocchi to pan. Cook, undisturbed, until gnocchi is lightly browned on bottom, 1-2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium. • Add sauce mixture, caramelized onion, and half the Italian cheese blend. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thickened and cheese has melted, 2-4 minutes more. TIP: If sauce begins to thicken too quickly, add splashes of reserved gnocchi cooking water.
• Add spinach and 1 TBSP butter (2 TBSP for 4 servings) to pan with gnocchi; stir until butter has melted and spinach is wilted. Taste and season with salt and pepper. • Divide gnocchi between plates. Top with remaining Italian cheese blend and serve.
Chicken Sausage is fully cooked when internal temperature reaches 165°.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Sep 2026- Flavor: The caramelized onions and cheesy cream sauce create a rich, satisfying dish that many called a new favorite; some found the overall flavor too heavy or one-dimensional 🍲.
- Ease of prep: The recipe is straightforward and quick to pull together on the stovetop, though browning the gnocchi properly takes a little attention.
- Suggestions: Skip or significantly reduce added salt at every step — the chicken sausage and stock concentrate are already quite salty, and many found the dish nearly inedible with full seasoning. Use only about one-third of the reserved gnocchi water for two servings, and consider cutting the butter in half to lighten the sauce. Adding a squeeze of lemon juice or a splash of acid helps cut the richness nicely.
- Leftovers: The sauce thickens considerably when chilled, making leftovers harder to reheat smoothly; add a splash of water when warming to loosen it up.
- Protein: Many enjoyed the chicken sausage's bold flavor, but a good number found it too salty, too strongly spiced, or overpowering — swapping in plain chicken or Italian sausage is a popular suggestion.
Reviews from our home cooks
I enjoyed the cream sauce and the gnocchi was soft and pillowy as expected. The chicken sausage and recipe overall was very salty and I did not add additional salt even though recipe recommended.
The onions seemed a bit out of place with the rest of the meal even if this was one of the best I've had from HelloFresh since I started. Maybe more spinach or even zucchini. Just my two cents, still a really awesome meal.
Delicious sauce and the chicken sausage made this perfect! Only wish I had more (but then wouldn't be as healthy....)
There is NOTHING to not love about this dish!!! The caramelized onions made it perfection!!! I could eat this EVERYDAY! Even without the chicken sausage. Delicious!! This is easily TOP 3 recipes for me!!!
The cheesy cream sauce was everything! It was rich, but lite at the same time. Great meal.
Really good but really rich. This would be fantastic as a side dish but too rich for a main dish. I can only eat a little bit.
We added crispy shallots to have some texture difference, but even w/o that crunch, it was a great meal!
Excellent!! Be careful salting as you go if you salt your pasta water generously. Added a little red pepper flake. Will definitely order again!
Lots of what we consider high sodium ingredients. Next time we will totally eliminate adding additional salt to the recipe and perhaps decreasing some of the other ingredients, ie cheese, concentrate.
This was so good, I would definitely order again. Flavors were off the hook! Delish!!!
