French Onion Gnocchi

With Valentine’s Day (and Super Bowl) around the corner I wanted to share a recipe that can easily work for either or both days. Personally, while this French Onion Gnocchi doesn’t have any outlandish or crazy ingredients, I do feel like the end result is fancy enough to make for Valentine’s Day for that special someone or just for yourself. I’ve always said that going out to dinner on the 14th is completely overrated. It’s much more fun and less pressure to cook at home and make a date night in, instead. Whether the dish is successful or not, at least you’re doing something together and in the end you’ll have fun. But if you make dish, I can guarantee you that it’ll turn out perfectly and you’ll love it!

Set a large oven-safe skillet or shallow dutch oven over moderate heat with the butter. Once melted and hot, add in the sliced onions. Season with a large pinch of salt, pepper, fresh thyme leaves and bay leaf.Make sure to stir often so that the onions don’t burn.

**Note: You want to make sure that your skillet is oven safe as it’ll go under the broiler later on to melt the cheese. You want something shallow and wide also, so as to get as much surface space as possible. I love this dutch oven because it’s large, sturdy and doesn’t break the bank.**

Cook the onions until deeply golden brown and caramelized, about 25 minutes or so. Make sure to stir often so that the onions don’t burn. If you find them browning too fast, you can lower the flame a bit and cook them lower and slower.

You want them as dark and caramelized as they look below. I added this extra photo because I figured it would be helpful to see.

**Tip: French Onion Soup is best known for its deep caramelized onion flavor and to achieve this, you have to cook the onions properly. Don’t cut the time short because you’ll skimp out on the flavor!**

Stir in the gnocchi, no need to boil them before hand, and cook for a few minutes to lightly brown them. This is also another reason why you want a wider shallow skillet so that you have enough space for the gnocchi to properly brown.

Deglaze the pan with the dry white wine and cook until almost evaporated completely. You want to scrape up all of those browned bits at the bottom of the skillet with your wooden spoon. That’s where all the flavor is.

Stir in the beef broth and bring to a simmer. Cook until the gnocchi has softened, about 10 to 15 minutes. Give it a taste and adjust seasoning accordingly, adding more salt or pepper as needed.

**Tip: If you wanted to keep this vegetarian, you could use vegetable stock instead of beef broth!**

Meanwhile, arrange the baguette slices on a baking sheet and drizzle with the olive oil. Pop under a preheated broiler until golden brown and crispy. Season with a bit of salt and set aside.

Remove the gnocchi from the heat, discard the bay leaf and sprinkle the top evenly with gruyere cheese. Pop under the broiler to melt and brown the top.

Carefully remove the skillet from the oven and garnish with fresh thyme leaves. Serve with the toasted bread slices on the side for dipping and dunking.

This is a delicious recipe all on its own, but if you wanted to add some protein you could start things by browning Italian sausage or ground beef first, remove from the skillet and then proceed with the recipe as written. Then just stir in the browned meat before topping with cheese.

If you want a complete meal, you could whip up a simple salad and serve it on the side. My go-to salad these days is butter lettuce, thinly sliced cucumber, radish, avocado, pistachio and a simple vinaigrette. Easy peasy.

This would also make for a great starter for a larger group because you could make the portions smaller (since it’s a starter after all) and really get more bang for your buck.

Whether you’re making this for a loved one this Valentine’s Day or you’re just looking for a delicious and easy weeknight meal, you can’t go wrong with it. The leftovers (if there are any) get better and better the next day so I can’t stress enough how badly you should try it as soon as possible! Thank you so much for reading and following along!