Saison Braised Brats with Gnocchi
Tender pillowy potato gnocchi floating in a cheesy saison sauce with beer braised brats. If that doesn’t scream comfort food to you, I don’t know what will! This sort of soupy saucy dish has lots of cheese and beer and potato and meat! I personally don’t like to gender food, but if there ever was a stereotypical man meal, this might be it! Meat and potatoes and BEER!
The inspiration for this recipe
Last time I was in Kennebunkport I had a nice day cooking pizza and drinking beer with some friends. The beer we were drinking was from Allagash, and this Saturday they are hosting a dinner at the sameย restaurant for their third annual Saison Day. I wanted to join in on the fun and make a recipe featuring their saison. Bratwurst traditionally pairs with beer so braising the sausage in saison made sense immediately. I was inspired by meat and potatoes as a classic pairing for beer, so I made potato gnocchi to go with the brats and used the braising liquid to form a sauce for the pasta.
Making the gnocchi
I love making gnocchi, it’s one of my favorite things to make in the kitchen! I like to use roasted potatoes, because I think it gives a stronger potato flavor to the final dish. It can be a little harder though to get the measurements right when you are using roasted potatoes because the moisture level will vary from potato to potato.
I like to use a potato ricer or mill to make sure the potatoes are fully broken up before mixing in the egg and flour. I also usually use an egg, but experts will tell you it is better with no eggs. The eggs do make it a little easier though. The egg will also help hold the gnocchi together with the braised brats and saison sauce.
Beautiful!
Braising the bratwurst
Sear the sausages first to brown on the outsides, then pour in the saison. Make sure you scrape the bottom of the pan to get all that goodness into the sauce! Simmer until the sausage is cooked through, then take them out of the pot and cut them up.
Sausages browned and the beer goes in next.
After the saison braised brats are chopped and the gnocchi and greens are added, the dish is looking good! Remove from heat and stir in some cheese!
Serving saison braised brats with gnocchi
After you mix in the cheese the sauce will be thick and tasty looking like you see below! Then all you have to do is serve it up! I like to have some chili flakes on the side so I can make it spicy.
A little cheese helps thicken the sauce to really coat the gnocchi and braised brats in saison goodness. I only ended up adding the cheese when I was first making this recipe because I needed the sauce to be thicker and I had some cheese around. It worked perfectly! I figured it would taste good because people love beer cheese.
The beer adds a bitterness to everything that plays well with the savory sausage and spicy chile flakes. The cheese calms down the beer flavor so it isn’t overpowering.
The gnocchi are tender and go great with the chewy sausage!
Twists on saison braised brats with gnocchi
If you didn’t want to add cheese to this to keep the saison braised brats with gnocchi dairy free, you could thicken the sauce with a tablespoon or two of instant mashed potato flakes. I love using potato flakes to thicken sauces and this would be a perfect place for it. You could also obviously do this with store bought gnocchi if you wanted!
If you are looking for more gnocchi recipes, check out my gnocchi gobi, or these gnocchi chili bowls!
Saison Braised Brats with Gnocchi
Equipment
Ingredients
Gnocchi
- 3 yukon gold potatoes
- 1 cup flour about
- 1 egg
- salt and pepper
Sauce
- 3 bratwurst sausages
- 1 small onion diced
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 allagash saison
- 1 bunch rainbow chard stems removed and leaves sliced
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Coat the potatoes with some olive oil and salt. Roast at 350 until fork tender, about an hour and a half.
- Peel the potatoes and use a potato ricer to break the potatoes into small flakes.
- Mix the potatoes with an egg and the flour and bring together. If it feels wet, add more flour as needed to bring it together. Do not knead this mixture, you want to mix it as little as possible while still forming it into a nice homogeneous mixture.
- Roll into a log and cut into gnocchi sized pieces. Use a fork to roll the gnocchi into the usual shape you expect with the ridges. (See photos)
- Cook the sausages in some oil on medium heat to brown on both sides. Add in the onion and cook a few minutes to soften and lightly brown.
- Add in the flour and stir well. Make sure the flour has dissolved and is incorporated with the oil. There shouldn’t be any lumps and the flour should very lightly brown after a few minutes of cooking and stirring.
- Add in the beer and stir well. Mix to prevent lumps. Bring to a simmer. Add in the chard. Cook about 10 minutes stirring often.
- Remove the sausage from the pot and slice it into half moons.
- Meanwhile, boil the gnocchi.
- Add the cooked gnocchi to the pot along with the chopped sausage. Stir well. Remove from heat. Add in the mozzarella slowly, stirring upon each addition to incorporate the cheese into the sauce and prevent clumping. Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed.
- Add in the pepper flake and serve.