Creamy Sausage & Spinach Gnocchi

Ingredients

• 6 pork sausages, meat removed from skins
• 800g potato gnocchi (store-bought)
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 15g butter
• 150ml hot chicken stock
• 120g baby spinach, washed
• 200ml double cream
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 50g grated Parmesan
• Salt and black pepper
• Crusty ciabatta, to serve
• Fresh basil, to serve
• Mixed leaf salad, dressed with a light red wine vinaigrette, to serve

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Pinch the sausage meat into rough hazelnut-sized pieces and season generously with salt and pepper before it hits the pan — this is your one chance to season the meat itself. Brown in two batches; all at once and the pan crowds, water comes out, and you've boiled the meat instead of browning it. You want deep golden crust and crisp edges, 6–8 minutes per batch. Lift out to a plate, leaving the fat and stuck bits behind — that's flavour for the sauce.
2. Turn the heat down to medium, add the butter and onion to the same pan and cook until soft and translucent, 4–5 minutes, scraping up the sausage fond as the onions release their moisture. Stir in the crushed garlic and cook just until fragrant — 30 seconds, no more. Burnt garlic turns the whole dish bitter, so watch it and move on the moment it smells sweet.
3. Tip in the gnocchi and toss in the buttery base for 2–3 minutes, pressing them into the pan and letting the edges catch and turn pale gold. You want a little bite and colour on them before the sauce goes in — soft gnocchi all the way through is nursery food; crisp-edged gnocchi is dinner.
4. Pour in the hot chicken stock and double cream and stir in the Dijon mustard. The stock and cream are doing the heavy lifting here — they loosen the fond and carry the mustard and Parmesan through every gnocchi pillow. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 4–5 minutes until the gnocchi have plumped and the sauce is glossy and lightly thickened, the kind of coat-the-back-of-a-spoon sauce that clings.
5. Return the browned sausage and any resting juices to the pan, then stir through the baby spinach a handful at a time and the Parmesan until the spinach has just wilted and the sauce coats everything — creamy throughout, with a few brown-edged gnocchi poking up for contrast.
6. Taste, season, taste again. Plenty of black pepper, salt to balance the Parmesan's saltiness — adjust now, not at the table.
7. Serve straight from the pan onto warm plates, drizzle each with extra virgin olive oil, scatter torn basil over the top, and bring the dressed mixed leaf salad alongside to cut through the richness.