The simplest sheet-pan dinner starts with gnocchi and chili crisp

There are a surprising number of ways a sheet-pan dinner can go wrong.

Some ingredients might stay raw while others char; their flavors and textures can blur into a singular mush. Or, in avoiding all that, they might sneak in so many steps and bowls that the sheet-pan feels like a Trojan horse for a jumble of dishes in the sink.

Since sheet-pan dinners took off circa 2015, I’ve seen it all (you, too?). I know that writing a truly easy, efficient, and — maybe trickiest — joyful one is an art.

This sheet-pan gnocchi that author Hetty McKinnon created for the “Simply Genius” cookbook might be its highest form. It’s the sheet-pan dinner I want to eat (and actually have time to make), week after week.

How does Hetty eke out so much flavor and texture with little time or trouble? For starters, she puts two pantry superheroes — packaged Italian gnocchi and Chinese chili crisp — to work in unexpected ways.

Though the gnocchi package says to boil them for two minutes, Hetty instead tosses them straight on the sheet pan to puff and crisp in the oven. According to Hetty, this rebellious technique also works well with frozen or refrigerated ravioli, dumplings, and pierogies — as in her New York Times Cooking recipe with Brussels sprouts and kimchi that inspired this one — all without boiling first.

Instead of cloaking the gnocchi in only olive oil to roast, she stirs in a couple spoonfuls of chili crisp, like Fly By Jing’s, for heat and much more. “The spice is almost secondary to the other things that it adds, like texture and umami.” Hetty says. “And every time I talk about flavor, it comes from a place for me that I’m vegetarian and I’ve been a vegetarian a long time.”

While the gnocchi toasts, there’s just a bit more to do: Toss hunks of baby bok choy and scallions in more chili crisp and toasted sesame oil to pile into the pan for the last 10 minutes. And whisk more scallions into sour cream to drizzle over the hot, crispy gnocchi and bright greens in the pan. Dinner is done.

“For all working families, that’s something that is so life changing,” Hetty told me. “To allow someone else to cook your dinner. And in this case, it’s an oven and high heat.”

Recipe: Sheet-Pan Gnocchi with Chili Crisp and Baby Bok Choy from Hetty McKinnon

The “Simply Genius” cookbook is out now — you can snag a copy in our Shop, or so many other places! Like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Bookshop.org, Hudson Booksellers, IndieBound, Powell’s, Target, Kitchen Arts & Letters, Now Serving, Omnivore Books on Food, Book Larder, or your favorite local bookstore.