Recipes › Easy comfort dinners› Sheet-pan gnocchi with cherry tomatoes and feta
Easy comfort dinners · Easy · Serves 4

Sheet-pan gnocchi with cherry tomatoes and feta

Shelf-stable gnocchi roasted straight on a sheet pan until crisp and chewy, with burst cherry tomatoes, melty feta, and garlic. One pan, thirty-five minutes, no boiling.

Anna Lind Harper
by Anna Lind Harper
Tested twice · Published 2026-06-15
A sheet pan straight from the oven on a folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel on a white marble counter, holding crisp golden roasted gnocchi tossed with burst red cherry tomatoes, softened melty feta, smashed garlic, and torn fresh basil, glossy with olive oil. A small bowl of extra basil and a halved lemon sit beside the pan. Soft natural light.
Prep
10 min
Cook
25 min
Serves
4
Difficulty
easy

This is the trick that changed weeknight gnocchi for me: you do not boil it. Tip the shelf-stable kind straight onto a hot sheet pan with cherry tomatoes, garlic, and a block of feta, and roast until the gnocchi go crisp and chewy and the tomatoes burst into a quick sauce. The feta softens into something you can stir through it all.

It is the easiest kind of dinner, the kind where the oven does everything and you walk away. Vegetarian, comforting, and bright from the tomatoes, with almost nothing to wash at the end.

“Gnocchi you roast instead of boil, on one pan, with burst tomatoes and melty feta. Walk-away easy.”
Why this one earns a weeknight

What you'll love about it

  • 01No boiling, no second pot, no draining. The gnocchi roast right on the pan.
  • 02One pan and about thirty-five minutes, mostly hands-off.
  • 03The burst tomatoes and feta turn into a creamy sauce with no effort.
  • 04Vegetarian and comforting, easy to stretch with greens, chickpeas, or sausage.
Anna, a 26-year-old home cook with long honey-blonde wavy hair wearing a fitted white tee and a beige apron, standing at her white marble counter tossing shelf-stable gnocchi with cherry tomatoes and smashed garlic on a rimmed sheet pan, a block of feta ready to nestle in the center, smiling softly. Bright natural kitchen light, a small cruet of olive oil and a dish of oregano beside the pan.
Toss the gnocchi, tomatoes, and garlic right on the pan, then tuck the whole block of feta into the middle before it goes in the oven.
Ingredients

For the sheet pan

  • 1 lbshelf-stable potato gnocchi
  • 1 pintcherry tomatoes
  • 4garlic cloves, smashed
  • 1 8 ozblock of feta
  • 3 Tbspolive oil
  • 1 tspdried oregano
  • ½ tspred pepper flakes
  • to tastekosher salt and black pepper

To finish

  • 2 Tbspfresh basil, torn
  • 1lemon, halved
Method

How I make it

  1. 01
    Heat the oven.
    Preheat to 425°F. Tip the gnocchi, cherry tomatoes, and smashed garlic onto a large rimmed sheet pan.
  2. 02
    Toss and add the feta.
    Drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle with oregano, red pepper flakes if using, salt, and pepper, and toss to coat. Spread into a single layer and nestle the block of feta into the center.
  3. 03
    Roast.
    Roast for 22 to 25 minutes, until the gnocchi are crisp and golden at the edges, the tomatoes have burst, and the feta is soft. Give the pan a shake halfway so the gnocchi crisp evenly.
  4. 04
    Stir into a sauce.
    Pull the pan out and stir everything together right on the sheet, crushing the burst tomatoes and softened feta so they coat the gnocchi in a quick, creamy sauce.
    A pair of hands in white linen button-down sleeves rolled to three-quarter forearm length stirring roasted gnocchi, burst cherry tomatoes, and softened feta together with a wooden spoon directly on a sheet pan, crushing the tomatoes and feta into a creamy sauce. White marble counter and a folded striped linen tea towel at the edge of the frame.
    Stir everything together right on the hot pan so the tomatoes and feta melt into a quick sauce that coats the gnocchi.
  5. 05
    Finish and serve.
    Scatter with torn basil and finish with a squeeze of lemon. Serve straight from the pan.
Macro close-up of crisp golden roasted gnocchi tangled with burst red cherry tomatoes, softened melty feta, and torn basil, glossy with olive oil. The crackly golden edges of the gnocchi and the juicy split tomatoes catch the light.
A note from Anna

Use the shelf-stable vacuum-packed gnocchi, not fresh or frozen. The dry kind crisps up beautifully on the pan, while fresh gnocchi tends to go gummy without boiling. And give the pan a good shake partway through so the gnocchi roast on more than one side; that is where the crispy, chewy texture comes from. If you want it a little saucier, add a splash of pasta water or broth when you stir it all together at the end.

What to serve with it

Round out the table.

  • ·01
    A big green salad
    Peppery arugula with lemon balances the richness.
  • ·02
    Crusty bread
    For the last of the tomato-feta sauce.
  • ·03
    A handful of greens stirred in
    Spinach or arugula wilts right into the hot pan.
Storage & reheating

Keeping the leftovers good.

Fridge: Keeps for 3 days in a sealed container.

Reheat: Reheat in a hot skillet or 400°F oven to bring back some crisp; the microwave softens the gnocchi.

Make ahead: Best fresh, but you can halve the tomatoes and crumble the feta ahead so the pan comes together fast.

Freezer: Not recommended; the gnocchi turn soft.

Recipe card

Sheet-pan gnocchi with cherry tomatoes and feta

Shelf-stable gnocchi roasted straight on a sheet pan until crisp and chewy, with burst cherry tomatoes, melty feta, and garlic. One pan, thirty-five minutes, no boiling.

Prep
10 min
Cook
25 min
Serves
4
Total
35 min
Ingredients
  • 1 lb shelf-stable potato gnocchi
  • 1 pint cherry tomatoes
  • 4 garlic cloves, smashed
  • 1 8 oz block of feta
  • 3 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • ½ tsp red pepper flakes
  • to taste kosher salt and black pepper
  • 2 Tbsp fresh basil, torn
  • 1 lemon, halved
Method (short version)
  1. 01Heat the oven.
  2. 02Toss and add the feta.
  3. 03Roast.
  4. 04Stir into a sauce.
  5. 05Finish and serve.

Nutrition information is an estimate. See full nutrition disclaimer.

Featured in
If you liked this

More from the weeknight table.

A half-sheet pan straight from the oven on a folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel on a white marble counter, holding four bone-in skin-on chicken thighs with shatter-crispy deeply golden brown skin, halved brussels sprouts with charred edges and bright green centers, wedges of orange sweet potato with deeply caramelized cut sides, and a halved lemon nestled at one corner. Scattered fresh dill sprigs and chopped dill across the pan, with a small ceramic bowl of flaky salt and a small ceramic dish of olive oil beside the sheet pan. Soft late-afternoon light from the kitchen window.
new
Dinner45 min
Sheet-pan chicken thighs with sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts
One sheet pan, four chicken thighs, two vegetables that crisp at the edges, and a small dressing of olive oil and dill. A weeknight dinner that takes ten minutes of work and forty-five in the oven.
A wide cream-speckled stoneware bowl of brown butter mushroom pasta on a white marble counter: short pasta in a glossy nutty brown sauce, deeply browned cremini and shiitake mushrooms distributed throughout, white cannellini beans folded in, a snow of freshly grated parmesan, scattered fresh thyme leaves, cracked black pepper, a small drizzle of olive oil pooling on the surface. Beside the bowl: a small wooden cutting board with halved cremini mushrooms, a sprig of fresh thyme, a wooden pepper mill, a folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel, a small dish of more grated parmesan. Soft late-afternoon kitchen light.
new
Dinner30 min
Brown butter mushroom one-pot pasta with white beans
A vegetarian one-pot pasta built on brown butter, deeply browned mushrooms, white beans, and parmesan. Thirty minutes, one Dutch oven, the kind of dinner that tastes like a long Sunday.