Beef & Bacon Gnocchi Skillet

Week 361. Winter 2023. I am 40 years old and standing in my kitchen — the Bench house kitchen, the one that held cancer and divorce and cinnamon rolls — and the stove is on and something is cooking and the house smells like soup and bread and this is my life. This is the life I built.

Tom made his trout on Friday, the way he does every Friday, and the fish was perfect, and the kitchen smelled like lemon and capers, and I sat at the table and ate fish that my partner caught and cooked and served, and the being-served is still a wonder after all these years.

Mason is 12 and reading everything he can find and examining the world under a microscope with the intensity of a tenured researcher.

Lily is 10 and riding horses with the fearlessness of someone who has never considered the possibility of falling.

I made slow cooker pulled pork this week. The food continues. The food always continues. It is the thread that connects every week to every other week, every year to every other year, every version of me to every other version — the woman on the kitchen floor, the woman at the chemo recliner, the woman at the grill, the woman at the outdoor table under the string lights. All of them, connected by the food they made with their hands. All of them, me.

Pulled pork was the plan that week — the slow cooker humming on the counter the way it does, doing its quiet, patient work while the rest of the day went on around it — but what I keep coming back to is the simpler truth the story already knows: it doesn’t matter all that much what’s in the pot. What matters is that something is in the pot. This Beef & Bacon Gnocchi Skillet is the kind of recipe that belongs to a Tuesday, to a week that is ordinary and whole, to a kitchen that has held hard things and held them anyway.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

6 strips thick-cut bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 lb ground beef (80/20)
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
1 package (16 oz) shelf-stable potato gnocchi
1/2 cup beef broth
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and black pepper to taste
Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish

Instructions

Cook the bacon. In a large, deep skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon pieces until crispy, about 6–8 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel—lined plate and leave about 1 tablespoon of drippings in the pan.
Brown the beef. Increase heat to medium-high. Add the ground beef to the skillet and cook, breaking it apart with a wooden spoon, until browned and no longer pink, about 5–7 minutes. Drain excess fat if needed, leaving a thin layer in the pan.
Sauté the aromatics. Reduce heat to medium. Add the diced onion to the skillet and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic, Italian seasoning, smoked paprika, and red pepper flakes (if using). Cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
Build the sauce. Stir in the diced tomatoes (with their juices), tomato sauce, and beef broth. Season with salt and black pepper. Bring to a gentle simmer.
Add the gnocchi. Nestle the uncooked gnocchi directly into the sauce, stirring to submerge. Cover the skillet and cook over medium-low heat for 8–10 minutes, stirring halfway through, until the gnocchi are tender and have absorbed some of the sauce.
Finish and serve. Stir the reserved bacon back into the skillet. Scatter the Parmesan over the top and let it melt for 1–2 minutes. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve directly from the skillet.

Nutrition (per serving)

Beef & Bacon Gnocchi Skillet — The Thread That Connects Every Week