Creamy Gnocchi with Spinach and Feta

Creamy Gnocchi with Spinach and Feta is the kind of weeknight dinner that feels like a warm hug on a plate! This Mediterranean-inspired dish combines pillowy gnocchi, vibrant spinach, and tangy feta cheese in the most luscious cream sauce that’s ready in just 20 minutes.

Love More Dinner Ideas? Try My Spinach Garlic Meatballs Stuffed With Mozzarella or this Garlic Parmesan Stuffed Spaghetti Squash with Chicken and Spinach next.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

The creamy sauce clings perfectly to each piece of gnocchi, while the fresh herbs and bright lemon zest make every bite feel restaurant-worthy. Plus, it’s naturally gluten-free when you use the right gnocchi, making it perfect for family dinners where dietary needs vary. The best part? Everything comes together in one skillet, so cleanup is a breeze!

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Ingredient List

For the Gnocchi & Base (Serves 3):

• 500 g shelf-stable gluten-free traditional gnocchi
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 small brown onion, finely chopped

For the Creamy Sauce:

• 300 mL fresh cream
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ¼ cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
• ¼ cup fresh dill, finely chopped
• Salt & freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
• ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

For the Finishing Touches:

• 100 g baby spinach leaves
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon zest
• 100 g Greek feta, crumbled

Why These Ingredients Work

Gnocchi cooks way faster than waiting for a huge pot of water to boil and then cooking regular pasta forever, which matters a lot when everyone’s starving and complaining. The cream you just grab from the dairy section somehow magically turns into this luxurious restaurant-quality sauce in minutes. My next-door neighbor Anna is from somewhere in Italy and she told me forever ago that real Parmesan cheese naturally thickens up sauces while also making them taste incredible, so that’s kind of a two-for-one situation. Throwing fresh herbs into basically anything automatically makes it taste way more expensive and fancy than the actual work you put in. That lemon zest though? That’s what stops this from being too heavy and sitting like a brick in your stomach afterwards. It adds this brightness that makes you actually want to keep eating. And those little crumbles of super salty feta scattered throughout? That’s genuinely what makes people completely obsessed with this recipe!

Essential Tools and Equipment

• Large pot for boiling water
• Large skillet (I just use whatever’s clean)
• Colander for draining
• Wooden spoon or whatever spatula you can find
• Microplane or regular cheese grater for the lemon
• Sharp knife for chopping everything

How To Make Creamy Gnocchi with Spinach and Feta

Step 1: Cook the Gnocchi

Grab your biggest pot and fill it up with water, then throw in a really generous amount of salt – my grandmother always told me it should taste like actual seawater. Turn the heat up high and wait for it to get to a rolling boil. Dump all the gnocchi in and just watch them because they cook insanely fast. The exact second they float up to the surface, they’re completely done – we’re talking maybe three minutes total max. Pour everything into your colander but before you do that, grab a coffee mug and scoop out some of that cloudy starchy pasta water! The very first time I made this I totally forgot that step and then really regretted it later when my sauce got way too thick and I had nothing to thin it out with.

Step 2: Build Your Flavor Base

Put your big skillet on the stove and turn it to medium heat, then add the olive oil. Throw your chopped onion in there and just let it cook for a couple minutes until it gets soft and you can kind of see through it. Then add all the sliced garlic and keep stirring it around for maybe another minute until your entire kitchen starts smelling absolutely amazing. Seriously do not walk away to check your phone or start another task during this part like I stupidly did once – garlic literally burns in about ten seconds flat and burnt garlic makes absolutely everything taste disgusting and bitter!

Step 3: Create the Cream Sauce

Pour in all your cream and just wait for it to start getting little gentle bubbles around the edges. Stir in the oregano, parsley, dill, and season everything with however much salt and pepper you like. I personally go pretty heavy-handed with the pepper but that’s just me. Add all the Parmesan cheese and keep stirring consistently until everything melts together into this smooth gorgeous sauce. Whatever you do though, do not turn your heat up past medium here! I got super impatient one time and cranked it way up to high thinking it would go faster, and my cream completely separated into this absolutely disgusting grainy texture that looked like lumpy cottage cheese. Totally ruined the whole thing and I had to throw it all out and just order pizza instead.

Step 4: Bring It All Together

Dump all your drained gnocchi right into the sauce and stir everything around until every single piece gets coated nicely. Throw in all that baby spinach – I literally just grab handfuls and shove it in there, doesn’t need to be precise. Watch it wilt down because it happens ridiculously fast, takes like maybe sixty seconds total. Stop cooking it the absolute second it wilts down though, because if you let it sit there cooking too long you’ll end up with that gross mushy dark green overcooked spinach that looks totally unappetizing and nobody actually wants to eat.

Step 5: The Finishing Touch

Turn your stove completely off! This part’s really important so don’t skip it or forget. Now add all the lemon zest and crumble in all your feta cheese over the top, stirring everything together really gently so you don’t accidentally smash up all the gnocchi pieces. The residual heat that’s already in the sauce and gnocchi will warm up the feta just perfectly without completely melting it into nothingness. Scoop this onto plates immediately while it’s still piping hot and steaming!

You Must Know

Feta cheese is way way saltier than you’d ever guess just by looking at it. Like seriously, it’s REALLY salty. You absolutely have to taste your sauce before adding any additional salt or you’ll end up with something so oversalted that literally nobody can eat it. I completely ruined an entire huge batch once by just dumping salt in without tasting first, and there’s absolutely no way whatsoever to fix something once it’s oversalted. Had to throw the entire thing away and wasted all that expensive cream. I’m still genuinely annoyed thinking about it!

Personal Secret: Okay so when I’m feeling fancy or we have guests coming over for dinner, I’ll take those extra few minutes to crisp up the drained gnocchi in a completely separate pan with some butter until they get all golden and crunchy on the outside before adding them into the cream sauce. The contrast between the crunchy crispy outside and the soft inside with that creamy sauce is legitimately restaurant-level amazing.

Pro Tips & Cooking Hacks

• Buy actual fresh lemons and zest them yourself – that dried jarred zest stuff doesn’t even remotely compare in flavor
• Remember that starchy pasta water you saved earlier? That’s absolutely perfect for thinning out your sauce if it gets too thick
• Keep your cream at a nice gentle simmer, never let it get to a crazy hard boil or it’ll separate and look absolutely revolting
• Get literally everything chopped and measured out before you even turn on your stove because once you start cooking this moves ridiculously lightning fast
• If you’re feeling extra indulgent or it’s a special occasion, stir in a nice chunk of butter at the very end for even more richness

Flavor Variations & Suggestions

Mediterranean Twist: I’ve thrown in chopped sun-dried tomatoes straight from the jar and some black olives when I had them just sitting around in my fridge. A little pinch of red pepper flakes is really great if anyone in your household likes spicy food.

Protein Boost: Shred up any leftover rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and throw that in. I also keep a bag of frozen shrimp in my freezer specifically for adding protein to dishes like this because they cook super fast. My brother always adds crumbled cooked Italian sausage whenever he makes this at his house.

Vegetable Lovers: Sliced mushrooms sautéed in there are really really good. Frozen peas dumped straight from the bag work great too and add nice color. Cherry tomatoes cut in half add some pretty color and a little bit of sweetness.

Cheese Swaps: Goat cheese melts into this sauce beautifully and tastes amazing with everything else. Ricotta is way milder if feta’s too strong or salty for you or your kids’ taste.

Herb Alternatives: I usually swap out the dill for fresh basil because I always have basil growing in a pot on my kitchen windowsill. My friend Sarah uses fresh mint in hers which sounded absolutely crazy to me until I actually tried it – legitimately delicious!

Make-Ahead Options

Being completely totally honest here – this tastes substantially better when you make it fresh and eat it right away. But if you really need to save some time, you can definitely chop up all your vegetables and herbs in the morning before work and keep everything in separate containers in the fridge so assembly at dinnertime is super quick and easy. You can even make just the cream sauce itself a few hours ahead of time and then gently reheat it when you’re ready, though you’ll probably need to add a good splash more cream because it thickens up quite a bit sitting around. I really genuinely wouldn’t recommend cooking the entire complete dish ahead of time though because reheated gnocchi gets this really weird mushy unpleasant texture that’s just not great at all.

Recipe Notes & Baker’s Tips

The single most important thing here is getting absolutely all your prep work completely done before you even think about turning on your stove. This isn’t like making a slow-simmering soup or stew where you can leisurely chop stuff while other things are cooking – literally everything happens lightning fast once you actually begin cooking. Fresh parsley and fresh dill really genuinely make a super noticeable difference in the final taste even though I totally just use regular dried oregano because honestly who actually keeps fresh oregano sitting around in their fridge? If you’re someone who gets heartburn from garlic or you just don’t love garlic that much, feel free to cut it back to just two cloves instead of the full four. My dad only ever uses two cloves maximum because he thinks four makes it taste way too garlicky for his personal preference.

Serving Suggestions

This is honestly pretty filling and satisfying all by itself as a complete meal, but I usually crack open whatever bottle of white wine is already sitting cold in my fridge – usually Pinot Grigio because that’s what’s on sale most weeks at my grocery store. Throwing together a really basic simple side salad with arugula and just squeezing fresh lemon juice on top helps balance out how rich and creamy everything is. Whenever I happen to have bread sitting around in the house I’ll toast up some slices because that cream sauce is genuinely way too delicious to leave even a single drop sitting in the pan.

How to Store Your Creamy Gnocchi

Refrigerator: Put whatever leftovers you have into any container you’ve got with a lid and it’ll keep fine in your fridge for about three days or so. Just fair warning though that the cream sauce gets super ridiculously thick and almost solid when it’s been sitting cold in the fridge.

Reheating: Warm everything up slowly in a pan on low heat and you’ll definitely need to add a good splash of milk or cream to thin it all back out to the right consistency. Keep stirring it pretty constantly so nothing sticks to the bottom and burns.

Freezing: Honestly don’t even bother trying to freeze this. Cream-based sauces get grainy and separated after going through the freezer, plus the gnocchi texture gets completely wrong and kind of rubbery. Just make it fresh or eat up any leftovers within those few days.

Allergy Information

Contains: Lots of dairy products from the heavy cream, Parmesan cheese, and feta cheese. Possibly contains gluten depending on exactly which brand of gnocchi you end up buying.

Gluten-Free Option: Just double-check and make sure your gnocchi package specifically says gluten-free on it if that actually matters for you or your family.

Dairy-Free Substitutions: You could maybe possibly try using coconut cream and nutritional yeast instead of all the dairy but I’m gonna be totally honest that it’s going to taste completely totally different. This entire recipe is really truly built around dairy being the star.

Questions I Get Asked A Lot

Can I use frozen spinach instead of fresh?

Fresh baby spinach really genuinely is the way to go here because it wilts down perfectly and quickly without making everything all watery. If frozen spinach is literally all you’ve got in your house right now, you absolutely have to thaw it completely first and then squeeze out every single drop of water you possibly can, or else your beautiful cream sauce will turn into gross watery spinach soup. Really not appetizing at all.

My cream sauce looks curdled – what went wrong?

Your heat was definitely way too high! Cream really needs gentle patient heat or it completely separates and breaks into these weird grainy bits that look absolutely terrible. Always keep your burner solidly at medium heat and don’t try to rush the process by cranking it higher. If it does end up curdling on you, you can try whisking in a tablespoon of cold cream after taking the pan completely off the heat – that sometimes saves it but honestly not always guaranteed to work.

Can I make this with regular pasta instead of gnocchi?

Yeah absolutely for sure! Penne or rigatoni both work really great as substitutes here. Just cook them however you normally would according to package directions and make absolutely sure to save extra pasta water because regular pasta tends to absorb way more sauce than gnocchi does.

How do I prevent the feta from completely melting?

Turn off the heat completely before you add the feta cheese! That’s genuinely the entire trick right there. The residual heat that’s already in the hot sauce will warm it up nicely and soften it just slightly without melting it completely into total oblivion. You really truly want those distinct separate little chunks of salty tangy feta scattered throughout the entire dish.

💬 Tried this recipe? Leave a comment and rating below! I’d love to hear how your creamy gnocchi turned out and any creative variations you discovered.