Fennel Sausage with Butternut Squash Gnocchi. Made with homemade fennel sausage chunks seared with potato gnocchi tossed in a roasted butternut squash sauce with fresh thyme, rosemary and blended until smooth with some crème fraiche. Finish off this one-pot meal with a copious amount of freshly grated parmesan cheese and thyme.

You’ll want to dive right into this super warming and comforting fall inspired meal that’s bursting with tons of flavor. Notes of fennel, thyme, rosemary, it’s a touch earthy with a hint of richness but not too heavy.

It has everything you want when you think of  fall flavours and cozy comfort. With butternut squash being in season it only makes sense take advantage and roast it for a delicious sauce. As it roasts, it becomes super soft and caramelizes just a bit enhancing the sweetness which makes it even easier to puree into a sauce or soup. It comes out a beautiful orange which pops this time of year with all the leaves changing colours and the temperatures cooling it naturally feels warm and comforting. The aromas from the oven seeping throughout the house are mouthwatering too. With just a touch of fresh herbs it goes a long way.

Fennel Sausage

We previously made a big batch of fresh fennel sausage for our previous post which was the pizza and planned to repurpose the extra for this particular recipe. It makes a big enough batch but its great to swap into so many different recipes. Anything from on top of pizzas, in pastas, breakfast sandwiches. You can even freeze the extra sausage and just re-make this recipe a week or two later. I can’t even begin to describe how tasty the fennel sausage is. Honestly as soon as it hits the pan and within seconds it starts to smell amazing. Once you bite into it, trust me you will want to make it over and over again to eat with everything. Its mouthwatering good.

GNOCCHI

For this recipe I used store bought potato gnocchi to keep it as simple as I could. Because I had already made the sausage and sauce from scratch I didn’t want to add more work than was needed. Honestly, nothing wrong with store-bought. It cooks so easily and quickly. You don’t need to boil it if its fresh, just toss it into the same pan as the sausage with a bit of cooking oil and stir until browned. It cooks in about 4 minutes.

This recipe is amazing for kids too. I feel like they like the soft chewy texture of gnocchi and how easy it is to eat. It almost melts in your mouth its so soft.  Paired with the butternut squash sauce, I’d say that’s a pretty darn good meal for them. They get a good amount of nutrition from fibre to some vitamins. and it is considered to be a winter superfood. But really for me its about feeding them something that’s tasty and filling and I think that this does just that.

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Print Recipe

Fennel Sausage with Butternut Squash Gnocchi

Pan-fried fennel sausage bites with sautéed gnocchi served with a creamy roasted butternut squash sauce with fresh rosemary and thyme.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time50 minutes mins

Course: Mains

Keyword: butternut squash, comfort, fall, fennel sausage, gnocchi, one-pot, roasted, weeknight dinner

Servings: 4 people

Ingredients

• 1 butternut squash
• 1 tsp olive oil
• rosemary removed from stem
• thyme removed from stem
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 tbsp crème fraiche
• 1 cube chicken bouillon
• 1 pound potato gnocchi homemade or store bought
• 1/3 cup chicken broth or white wine
• 1/2 cup fennel sausage see notes
• 1 cup parmesan grated
• fresh thyme to serve

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Cut the butternut squash in half, lightly score in a cross hatch pattern and season with salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme. Roast until soft and tender about 35-40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly.
• Scoop out all the flesh and insides of the squash and add it to a blender. Blend with chicken bouillon cube and crème fraiche until smooth.
• Heat a large skillet with a bit of cooking oil over medium heat. Once hot, tear the fennel sausage into bite sized pieces and drop them in the hot pan to sear. Brown on both sides. Stir in the gnocchi once the sausage has been flipped tossing until browned.
• Once browned, pour the butternut squash sauce into the pan, stir in the broth or wine and simmer until a silky sauce forms.
• Season with freshly grated parmesan cheese, season with additional salt and pepper if needed and garnish with some thyme. Enjoy!

Notes

Fennel Sausage:

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* combine everything together and mix well. Refrigerate until ready to use.