Caesar salad is the dessert of salads. Hear me out. It’s creamy, it’s indulgent, there’s cheese, there’s buttery toasted bread… and sure, there’s lettuce but it’s the friendly kind- crisp and green and watery. And it’s SALAD. Except, like just about everything, I can’t leave well enough alone and we’re turning our dessert salad into a pasta dish. It just feels like a really good idea!
Listen, life comes at us fast and I want to be sure I have a belly full of comforting gnocchi when it does.
Here’s what you’ll need:
• a package of store-bought gnocchi. I used DeLallo because I’ve made a disaster of my kitchen and my emotional well-being trying to make my own homemade gnocchi.
• Italian sausage though, if that’s not your thing you could totally leave out the meat or add a roasted broccoli for extra veggie.
• cubed bread, olive oil, salt, and pepper to toast up some croutons.
• lettuce (I used romaine before there was that nasty recall so use whatever feels right to you!)
• Caesar Salad flavors like: anchovy paste, dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, lemon, garlic, capers, parsley, salt and pepper.
• And to turn the salad into a creamy pasta dish: heavy cream and parmesan cheese.
We’ll start by browning the sausage in a splash of olive oil until cooked through and crisp. The crisp bits are my favorite, they’re everyone’s favorite – so feel free to go hard on the browning.
Remove the sausage from the pan and heat together the minced garlic and anchovy paste. You can smell that just reading it, can’t you? Take it in, it only gets better.
Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce will add out next layer of flavor – a savory hit of acid and brightness! Stirring all of the ingredients together over low heat helps bring out all the goodness.
To all of those savory flavors we’ll add heavy cream (amen), a small handful of parmesan cheese, and a good dose of black pepper.
Stir to incorporate. Stir over heat, at almost a simmer, until the mixture thickens just slightly.
The cooked gnocchi and sausage into the pan. Toss to coat in the cream sauce and FRIENDS- it’s really starting to come together!
And platter it up! Which… to me is almost as satisfying as sitting down with a giant bowl of it.
Start by spreading roughly chopped lettuce across the platter. Add the warm, creamy gnocchi (it’ll wilt the lettuce a bit and that’s great actually). Top with croutons and capers, and extra parmesan cheese. Marvel at your creation, share your accomplishments, and wow enjoy!
I developed this recipe for DeLallo (whose cheeseboards I genuinely and deeply love). Find the gnocchi recipe HERE! It’s really delicious. Hop upon this train!
Erica
Can’t wait to try this recipe. I’ve had some success making my own ricotta gnocchi, in case you ever get the itch to try again! I hear it is much easier than the potato variety.
Mollie
Amazing! Made this for lunch yesterday, and fried an egg with it for breakfast today! Great recipe, Joy!
Blu
This looks so good! Gnocchi is my fav pasta!
Blu
http://www.liveloveblu.com | wellness & healthy living
Kristen
This idea is awesome! I had to substitute with ground beef, kale, and premade ravioli (simply because that’s what I had on hand, and I couldn’t wait to make this dish). It was soooooo good! My husband even asked me to make this again soon, and he’s not keen on Caesars. It’s definitely earned a place in our regular rotation! Well done, Joy!
joythebaker
That’s rad Kristen! Sounds delicious!
Valerie
Can’t wait to try this, it looks so delicious. One thing? Why can’t I pin this? I’m using my iPad, the symbols at the end only take me to whichever app I click on, no pin!
Donna
What a creative recipe! Caeser salad & pasta–you really can’t go wrong!
Lisa
This sounds amazing! Will definitely try it out, but sans the breadcrumbs :)
Ashlyn @ The Pedantic Foodie
You just combined my very favorite salad with my other very favorite thing in life – pasta, and I love you for it! This is genius.
Adrienne
This looks amazing. I once made a spinach salad gnocchi with bacon and just barely wilted spinach and bacon. SOOO good!
Ramona
Oh this sounds so good! Perfect for a Christmas family get together! Thank you and have a blessed day!
Rena
I must try it out as this salad seems to be really my taste!
xx from Bavaria/Germany, Rena
http://www.dressedwithsoul.com
Amy
Joy! Long time listener, first time caller here. Love your site, have for years. Which is why I feel obligated to tell you about three typos you need to fix here. This post has photos that include lemons but they are not mentioned in the description. I assume they belong with the Dijon and Worcestershire sauce. They post also describes anchovy “pasta”. And thirdly, when I click through to the DeLallo recipe, the description talks about putting the bread “crumbs” in the oven instead of bread cubes. Hope this helps!
joythebaker
Thank you Amy – I appreciate you!