Miracle Meal: Sheet Pan Gnocchi, Meatballs, and Giardiniera

This particular Miracle Meal is special to me because it’s inspired by my 6-year-old’s love of pickles (that, and my colleague Sheela’s crispy sheet pan gnocchi). That’s right — gnocchi, pickled vegetables, and frozen meatballs are cooked together on a single sheet pan, creating an unlikely yet delicious dinner that boasts all the comfort of pasta, richness from meatballs, and acidity and heat from pickled vegetables.

I admit that I skipped over these Italian pickled vegetables for years! It wasn’t until I started raising a pickle-lover that I began exploring pickles outside of the classic dill, kosher, and bread and butter. But don’t make my same mistake — keep these pickled vegetables on hand for quick cocktail nibbles, as a topper for vegetables, and, most importantly, for this sheet pan miracle meal.

Quick pasta dinners are the heart of Miracle Meals, but this particular one lets you enjoy pasta without even boiling any water.

Miracle meals are the meals we pull off despite the failure of our best-laid plans; the dinners we can get on the table in 10 minutes; the meals made from pantry staples. Miracle meals are just as much about the cooks as they are about the eaters. At Kitchn, a Miracle Meal recipe only uses basic kitchen equipment and no more than five ingredients, with just 40 minutes (or less) of hands-on cooking time.