sheet-pan gnocchi with sausage, brussels, mushrooms, and burrata

cozy fall vibes!!!

I try to keep What To Cook a kid-friendly, but not kid-first space. By that I mean: pleasing adults is my primary concern, but I always think of each recipe through a kid lens, too.

Meals like healthy-ish bolognese, sorta pasta alla norma, and 15-minute peanut noods can be exuberantly enjoyed, in the same format, by the kids, George, and me. Huge wins. Check the “what to cook when you need to feed kids” section of the recipe index for more kid winners.

Other meals, like the show off-y greek salad, require just a bit of deconstruction to please the whole family. George and I eat it as a big salad. Mattis (age 4) eats the chicken, tomatoes, and bell peppers. Calum (age 3) eats the chicken with ketchup and some cucumbers. And, of course, baby Cashy (age 1) eats absolutely everything, especially the olives, just cut into little bitty bites.

I bring this up because, at first glance, this might look like a meal that won’t please an entire family, including picky eaters. It might seem like a meal for an adults-only night (which, it also absolutely should be). But actually, this one can be fully deconstructed into a beast-friendly meal: my older two children, who are in such a picky phase, absolutely devoured this meal.

George and I ate big bowls of this, just as it’s intended. George’s literal response was “WTF, what is this?!?!” He loved it. The boys ate gnocchi and 4 sausage meatballs with ketchup. I also put Brussels on their plate, and they didn’t touch them. But I didn’t let it stress me out, because I know they will someday learn to love Brussels sprouts, just like my dad did at age 65 when I served them to him this way (thinly sliced and roasted for a long time on high heat).

Baking gnocchi in the oven instead of boiling it gives you a completely different, absolutely delightful, little bite of food. They become crispy on the outside and soft and pillowy on the inside. The flavor intensifies when roasting, so you get these little flavor bomb potato-y bites.

We’re also doing something really cool with the sausage. You’re going to squeeze the sausage out of the links to make about 5 little “meatballs” per link. It’s so quick and easy and they get crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, YUM.

And the Brussels! This is my FAVORITE way to roast Brussels sprouts to ensure that they get that roasty caramelized flavor and don’t maintain any of the bitter, sulfur-ish flavor that they can have when raw.

Toss it all together with your GOOD olive oil, lemon zest, and garlic, and top it off with burrata and OHHH BABY, you’re in for a cozy, delicious meal. George added pesto from the fridge to his and was obsessed with it, so I’m adding that as an optional ingredient as well!

but i hate brussels sprouts

Use 1 1/2 pounds of mushrooms instead! Or check out all of the riffs in the notes below the recipe.

but i hate mushrooms

Just omit them!

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sheet-pan gnocchi with sausage, brussels, mushrooms, and burrata

Serves 4

Cook time: 40 minutes (~15 active minutes, 25 inactive minutes)