There is the gnome-core metapackage that can be installed.
sudo apt-get --no-install-recommends install gnome-core
If gnome-core
does not look lean enough, the following packages are hand-picked from the gnome-core list:
sudo apt-get --no-install-recommends install \
xserver-xorg \
gdm3 \
gnome-session \
gnome-shell \
gnome-keyring libpam-gnome-keyring \
gnome-control-center \
gnome-terminal \
network-manager-gnome \
pulseaudio
Next step: Browsers