The baked gnocchi with sausage, eggplant, and mozzarella is a rich and flavorful first course that will make you lick your lips.
As good as Sorrentina style gnocchi, but even more flavorful as the sauce is enriched with crumbled sausages, which are first sautéed in hot oil and then deglazed with some red wine.
To give an extra quid to the whole preparation, there are also fried eggplants that perfectly pair with all the other ingredients in the recipe, namely, mozzarella and grated Parmesan.
I chose to use ready-made potato gnocchi to speed up the preparation, but if you have the time and want to, you can make them at home to give the whole recipe an even more rustic look.
Now take a minute to read the recipe and then… let’s cook and eat!!
See also
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 6
- Cooking methods: Oven, Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 35 oz potato gnocchi
- 4 sausages
- 1 quart tomato puree
- 2 eggplants (medium)
- 10.5 oz mozzarella (or fiordilatte/provola)
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- to taste vegetable oil
- to taste salt
- 3.5 oz grated Parmesan
Tools
- 1 Frying pan
- 1 Pot
- 1 Slotted spoon
- 1 Colander
- 1 Sieve
- 1 Skillet
- 1 Baking dish
Steps
To prepare the baked gnocchi with sausage, eggplant, and mozzarella, start by cutting the mozzarella into cubes and let it drain in a sieve. Then, focus on preparing the sauce and while it cooks, fry the eggplants.
Heat a layer of oil in a pan, remove the casing from the sausages, crumble them, place them in the pan, and sauté them well.
At this point, deglaze the sausage with red wine, and when the alcohol has evaporated, add the tomato puree and salt. Cover with a lid and let it cook for 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, wash and cut the eggplants into (not too small) cubes, and fry them in vegetable oil until golden. As they are ready, remove them with a slotted spatula and transfer them to a strainer to drain the excess oil.
Cook the gnocchi in plenty of salted boiling water, removing them with a slotted spoon as they float to the surface and transferring them to a colander. When all the gnocchi are cooked, transfer them, well-drained, to a large bowl and add a few ladles of sauce, the fried eggplants, mozzarella cubes, and grated Parmesan. Mix well to blend the flavors.
Next, take a baking dish (I chose a terracotta pan) and pour a couple of ladles of sauce inside to cover the entire base. Pour the gnocchi into the dish, level the surface well, sprinkle with more grated cheese and add some mozzarella cubes.
Finally, bake the gnocchi in a preheated static oven at 392°F for 20 minutes, then switch to the grill for 5-10 minutes to form a crust on top 😉.
