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Trader Joe's Cauliflower Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Sage

Easy★ 4.9Yields: 2 servings

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Trader Joe's Cauliflower Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Sage

Let me save you from yourself. If you've been following the cooking instructions on the back of the Trader Joe's (TJ's) Cauliflower Gnocchi bag, I need you to stop. Right now. Put down the bag. Step away from the microwave. Those instructions produce gummy, sticky, sad little gnocchi blobs that taste like steamed regret. The bag says you can boil them or microwave them. The bag is lying to your face. Here's what you're actually going to do: pan-fry them from frozen in brown butter until they're golden and crispy on the outside and pillowy soft on the inside, then toss them with fried sage leaves, garlic, and a shower of parmesan. That's it. Fourteen minutes. One pan. And the result is a plate of food that looks and tastes like you spent an hour making handmade gnocchi from scratch when really you just opened a frozen bag and threw it in a hot pan. The brown butter is non-negotiable. Regular butter is fine for toast. Brown butter is what separates people who cook from people who eat. It's just butter that you've cooked past the melting point until the milk solids toast and turn nutty and caramelly and your kitchen smells like a Parisian bakery had a baby with an Italian grandma's kitchen. The sage leaves fry in the butter and turn crispy and shatter when you bite them. The garlic does what garlic does, which is make everything better by simply existing. This is the kind of meal that makes you feel things. Emotional, spiritual, deeply satisfied things. And it takes fourteen goddamn minutes. Let's fucking go.

Ingredients

1 (12 oz) bag Trader Joe's Cauliflower Gnocchi (frozen, do NOT thaw)
3 tbsp unsalted butter
8-10 fresh sage leaves
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (use Trader Joe's Parmigiano Reggiano)
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)

Instructions

1
Get the pan screaming hot
Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the butter and let it melt completely. Once it's melted, it's going to foam up. Don't panic. Keep swirling the pan gently. The butter will go from yellow to golden to a deep amber color and start smelling nutty and insane. That's brown butter. That's what we want. Takes about 2-3 minutes. Don't walk away or it'll burn and you'll have to start over and you'll be angry.
2
Fry the sage
Drop the sage leaves into the brown butter. They're going to sizzle and pop and that's normal. Fry them for about 30 seconds until they turn dark green and crispy. Pull them out with a fork or tongs and set them on a paper towel. They'll get even crispier as they cool. These are basically sage chips and you're going to want to eat them all before the gnocchi is done. Resist.
3
Cook the gnocchi from frozen
Add the frozen cauliflower gnocchi to the brown butter in a single layer. Do NOT thaw them first. Frozen. Straight from the bag into the hot pan. Let them sit undisturbed for 3-4 minutes until they're golden brown on the bottom. This is the hardest part because you have to leave them alone. Don't poke them. Don't move them. Don't even look at them too hard. When they release from the pan easily and have a golden crust, flip them and cook for another 2-3 minutes on the other side.
4
Garlic and finish
Push the gnocchi to the edges of the pan and add the sliced garlic to the center. Let it sizzle for 30 seconds until fragrant but not brown. Toss everything together. Hit it with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes if you want, and shower the whole thing with grated parmesan. Crumble the fried sage leaves over the top. Serve immediately and try to act normal about how good this is.

Baker's Notes

FROZEN. Say it with me. FROZEN. Do not thaw the gnocchi. Thawed gnocchi release moisture and turn into a gummy paste that sticks to the pan and your soul. Frozen gnocchi hitting hot butter is the move. The exterior sears while the inside steams. Science.
If you don't have a non-stick pan, use a well-seasoned cast iron and add an extra tablespoon of butter. The gnocchi WILL stick to stainless steel and you will have a bad time.
You can also do this in an air fryer at 390°F for about 10 minutes, shaking halfway through. The results are crispy and great but you miss out on the brown butter and fried sage, which is honestly the whole point. The air fryer version is for when you're too tired to stand at a stove.
Add baby spinach to the pan in the last minute of cooking if you want to pretend this is a balanced meal. It wilts right into the brown butter and adds color and nutrients and whatever. The real nutrition here is joy.
This is one of those meals that works for basically every dietary restriction. The gnocchi is gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan. The butter and parmesan obviously aren't, but sub olive oil and nutritional yeast and you've got a vegan version that still slaps.

Nutrition

Calories

310

Fat

19g

Carbs

28g

Protein

8g

Sugar

2g

Serving

1/2 recipe

Notes

“The recipes are good. The language is bad. You're welcome.” - fuckingdelicious.co

FAQ

Why can't I follow the bag instructions?

Because whoever wrote the bag instructions clearly never actually cooked these gnocchi. Boiling them turns them gummy. Microwaving them turns them into sad little cauliflower erasers. Pan-frying from frozen creates a crispy shell around a tender interior and it's not even close. The bag should come with a warning label that says 'ignore everything on this label.'

What's brown butter?

It's regular butter that's been cooked past the melting point until the milk solids toast. It goes from yellow to golden to amber and develops this incredibly nutty, almost toffee-like flavor. It's the single easiest way to make anything taste 10x better and once you learn it you'll put it on everything. Toast, pasta, vegetables, ice cream, your fingers. Everything.

Can I use the kale gnocchi or sweet potato gnocchi instead?

Yes to both. Same cooking method, same timing. The kale gnocchi is a little denser and holds up well to the brown butter. The sweet potato gnocchi is sweeter so the sage and parmesan balance it out nicely. All three are excellent. The cauliflower is just the cult classic.

My gnocchi stuck to the pan and fell apart. What went wrong?

Either your pan wasn't hot enough, you didn't use enough butter, or you tried to flip them too early. The gnocchi need to form a golden crust on the bottom before you move them. If they resist when you try to flip, they're not ready. Wait another minute. They'll release on their own when they're properly seared. Patience. I know it's hard.

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