Heart Eyes, Vol. 262: Crisp Gnocchi with Brussels Sprouts and Browned Butter

Friends! Hello. Happy Friday. Today I woke up and thought to myself, “today is going to be a good day,” which is a thing you can say when you know you’re a) getting a new kitten to foster and b) going to a fun Christmas party after a long week of work. On the same day! My ten-year-old self couldn’t have planned it better, and my 44-year-old self still thinks it’s a thrill.

Whatever your December weekend looks like, I hope it includes whatever your version of “a kitten and a party” is. I think you’re doing great.

This week, just a recipe! Enjoy!

What to Cook: Crisp Gnocchi with Brussels Sprouts and Browned Butter

OK, I’m not going to lie to you and say that I don’t have holiday baked goods burning a hole in my pocket. I made that cranberry crumble pie and it was GOOD, and that was before I decided I needed some of Deb’s brown-butter brown-sugar shortbread to…you know. Have around.

But I know that what we actually need at this time of year is…dinner. And not some elaborate project of a meal. We need something that feels like real food and ideally involves a vegetable of some kind. And if it can be on the table in 20 minutes or less? Bonus points.

Enter Ali Slagle’s Crisp Gnocchi with Brussels Sprouts and Browned Butter (NYT gift link), which recently saw me through a busy holiday-season week while also salvaging some pre-Thanksgiving Brussels sprouts. It’s a very easy recipe: you’ll chop the sprouts in half and throw them into a hot pan with a package of uncooked, shelf-stable gnocchi, some lemon and red pepper flakes, just the barest drizzle of honey, and a healthy coating of browned butter. That’s…pretty much it? You’ve got your full serving of cruciferous veggies, your perfectly pillowy, crisp-edged gnocchi (if you’ve never pan-friend gnocchi straight from the package, prepare yourself for a revelation), and, well, browned butter, which is everybody’s friend. It’s a delicious and extremely doable dish for these packed and festive weeks. You might like it, too.