This recipe for crispy pan fried gnocchi with broccoli and bacon makes an addictively delicious pasta with store-bought gnocchi that comes together in minutes. Pan frying shelf-stable gnocchi results in a golden-brown exterior and soft spongy interior, while the just-cooked broccoli provides a freshness that contrasts nicely with the crunch and umami of the bacon.
You’ll love this recipe for crispy pan fried gnocchi with broccoli and bacon, one of our best broccoli recipes, if you’re a lover of fried pasta or fried dumplings such as potstickers or fried pelmeni and vareniki, and if you’re a fan of the broccoli-bacon pairing. It’s a great flavour match in the way melon and prosciutto or tomato and mozzarella are. If you’re a fan, try my Russian sour cream omelette with broccoli and bacon.
If you’ve travelled in Northern Italy, especially to Italy‘s romantic Verona, the ‘city of gnocchi’, or the Italian Alps, where warming rich pastas are appreciated in the colder climate, the pan fried gnocchi you’ve probably tried is gnocchi burro bruno e salvia or gnocchi with brown butter and sage. That dish is made with fresh gnocchi scooped out of a pot of boiling water and finished in a pan of brown butter sauce and sage. I’ll share a recipe for that soon.
You could certainly make this pan fried gnocchi with boiled fresh gnocchi – Italians fry up their leftover boiled pasta the next day – but you’d need to leave it overnight in the fridge, in the same way we make fried rice with leftover rice that’s been refrigerated. Use shelf-stable gnocchi and you won’t need to wait a day, plus the dumplings will be crispier and more golden-brown.
If you’re a gnocchi lover, try my pan fried pumpkin gnocchi with brown butter sage sauce, asparagus, mushrooms and bacon gnocchi, creamy tomato pasta sauce with gnocchi recipe, basil pesto with gnocchi recipe, and this creamy leek and bacon gnocchi recipe. For more quick and easy pasta recipes, see our canned tuna pasta with scallions, capers and fresh herbs, my penne Bolognese recipe for a ‘cheat’s Bol’, cherry tomato feta pasta recipe, basil pesto pasta with potatoes and green beans recipe, and canned sardine pasta with gremolata and pangrattato.
I’ll tell you more about this recipe for pan fried gnocchi with broccoli and bacon below. Looking for more cooking inspiration? We have many hundreds of recipes in our archives, and you can save recipes you like by clicking on the heart on the right of each post to save your favourites in your own private account.
Pan Fried Gnocchi Recipe with Broccoli and Crunchy Bacon
Now before I share some tips to making this recipe for pan fried gnocchi with broccoli and bacon, I want to clarify a few things. Because I’ve read the strangest claims about pan fried gnocchi or sautéed gnocchi on the web, starting with the fact that Italians don’t pan fry pasta. Not true at all. They do. Italian pasta makers also invented shelf stable gnocchi, so there’s that!
As one Italian friend said “Italians fry pasta, we just don’t make a recipe out of it.” And she wasn’t referring to the fact that most pastas are transferred from the boiling pot of water to the frying pan and combined with the pasta sauce before plating. Italians also pan fry leftover pasta the day after making it in the same way that you and I do.
Pan frying leftover pasta, including pan frying gnocchi, is a way to repurpose leftover pasta, reduce food waste, and make a quick and easy casual meal – always a good idea after having friends over on a Saturday evening for a multi-course Italian dinner in which a pasta dish comprised just one course.
Which explains why pan fried pasta, including pan fried gnocchi, is often served to children as leftovers while adults cook a meal afresh. Because as my friend pointed out, Italians are less likely to have a lot of leftover pasta, let alone enough for another pasta meal, as pasta is traditionally a starter – despite many Italians eating pasta as a main course these days.
It’s also worth noting that pan fried gnocchi is not ‘gnocchi fritti’ as I’ve seen it called. Although I have to confess that I also made the mistake of thinking it was once upon a time, a very long time ago. Gnocchi fritti are crispy pastries of deep-fried dough (not crispy dumplings) that are typically served as antipasti with cured meats and cheeses. And gnocchi fritti are absolutely divine.
Some years ago, Terence and I rented a wonderful light-filled apartment overlooking the lively Naviglio Grande canal while researching and writing a Milan guidebook for Lonely Planet – one of our best guidebook gigs ever! – and on the ground floor of our building was Osteria del Gnocco Fritto, a restaurant dedicated to those crispy puffy snacks.
Made with lard, gnocchi fritti are a specialty of Emilia Romagna, and typically served with other regional specialties, such as culatello, mortadella and salume. Fortunately – or in hindsight, unfortunately – Terence and I had a rule not to eat at the same place twice as we were seeking out new spots for the guidebook, otherwise we could easily have become regulars at that welcoming osteria.
Just a few tips to making this recipe for crispy pan fried gnocchi with broccoli and bacon, as it’s a cinch to make and comes together in minutes.
Tips to Making this Crispy Pan Fried Gnocchi Recipe with Broccoli and Bacon
I only have a few tips to making this pan fried gnocchi with broccoli and bacon, as it’s another one of our quick and easy pasta recipes that come together quickly. But before I share those tips I have to explain why I’ve become a fan of store-bought, vacuum-sealed, shelf-stable gnocchi.
Don’t get me wrong: Terence and I adore making fresh homemade gnocchi, but it’s a very different product to the store-bought, shelf-stable gnocchi you can buy in the supermarket, so first things first: don’t compare the two.
Comparing the two is like comparing fresh homemade orecchiette with a commercial dried orecchiette, or, say, pierogi made from scratch with frozen supermarket pierogi. There’s no comparison. So when it comes to cooking shelf stable gnocchi, you have to take a different approach to fresh gnocchi.
Think of shelf-stable gnocchi in the same way you think of other long-life dried pasta products that you keep in the pantry for quick and easy pastas. It’s perfect for a speedy weeknight meal whereas on weekends, when you have more time to cook, you can make fresh gnocchi with a bottle of wine beside the pasta board.
So firstly, prepare the bacon and broccoli following the recipe instructions. There’s a lot of flexibility to cook the bacon and broccoli to your liking, whether you prefer the broccoli just-cooked or the bacon crunchy.
Cooking the shelf-stable gnocchi also couldn’t be easier and it’s hard to go wrong. But I need to point out that it doesn’t re-heat well. So only cook what you’ll need for the dish. If you do end up with leftover gnocchi re-heat it in a covered pan with a little water, so you’re essentially steaming the gnocchi. They’ll lose their crispiness but will at least be cooked inside. Enjoy!
Pan Fried Gnocchi Recipe with Broccoli and Bacon
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil - divided
- 2 bacon rashers - rind removed, finely diced
- 250 g broccoli - florets only
- 2 tbsp butter
- potato gnocchi - store-bought, shelf-stable
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
Instructions
- In a large lidded deep fry pan or skillet, heat a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat and fry the finely diced bacon to your liking; I like to fry two-thirds of the bacon until cooked, and the remaining third until crunchy.
- Scoop out the bacon with a slotted spoon and transfer it to a dish, leaving the oil to cook the broccoli, and fry the florets until cooked to you liking; we like the broccoli just-cooked so it’s still fresh and green. Transfer the broccoli to a dish.
- Add a tablespoon of olive oil and two tablespoons of butter to the same pan, add the potato gnocchi, stir to ensure the pieces are separated and fully coated in the boil and butter, put the lid on and fry for a few minutes.
- Remove the lid and use a wooden spoon to stir the gnocchi, which should have puffed up and be starting to crisp up and brown on the outside, and continue to stir the gnocchi occasionally.
- When the gnocchi is mostly browned all over, try a piece of the pasta. If the gnocchi is soft and fluffy within and crispy and brown on the outside, it’s ready.
- Return the broccoli and most of the bacon to the fry pan, saving a little crispy bacon for garnishing, and add the salt and pepper. Stir to combine well, taste, and adjust the seasoning to suit your palate.
- Divide between plates, drizzle on a little extra virgin olive oil, and serve immediately with grated parmesan, more salt and pepper, garlic salt or chilli flakes, or perhaps some fried breadcrumbs or dukkah, and a side salad.
Notes
Nutrition
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