Last year I wrote about my quest to create an all-time favourite of mine in a format that would not only meet all our then allergy needs, but that I also hoped both M and G would enjoy. I successfully tweaked some easy recipes to create an instant winner for dinner-time in our household: gluten-free gnocchi and their sweet potato counterpart. For very many reasons I haven’t ventured back to this delicious meal since M started his elemental diet at the end of last year, not least because it is really time-intensive and when cooking 3 different dishes for a single meal-time is the new norm, simple is often best.

One of the unexpected highlights of our holiday in Cornwall came right at the end of the week as I was browsing the farm shop at the Lost Gardens of Heligan before we headed home. I came across a packet of Bionita ready-made and gluten-free potato gnocchi and immediately snapped it up. I couldn’t wait for the perfect opportunity to try them out at home with G and that chance finally came last week, whilst M and I were both fighting off persistent heavy head colds, the peril of going back to school when you have a compromised autoimmune system. The prospect of slaving over a hot stove at the end of a long day really didn’t appeal and these gnocchi seemed to be the ideal option for a quick, easy and delicious meal.

Just as with the “normal” version, these gnocchi take just 2 minutes to cook in boiling water and I served them simply with a sage butter with sweetcorn and pine-nuts that was just as quick to prepare. Within 5 minutes, a steaming bowl of aromatic gnocchi was sitting in front of G and she loved every mouthful of this revisited classic. The packet is easily enough for 3 or 4 meals for G as gnocchi really are surprisingly filling and, as it states that they should be used up within 3 days of opening, I’ve popped the pack into the freezer until the next time. My fingers are now tightly crossed that they prove to be as good from frozen as the ones I made from scratch last year.