Making light and delicate gnocchi involves many potential pitfalls, from using the wrong type of potato to being overzealous with the flour. While many recipes call for boiling potatoes to make the base of the pasta, cooks including celebrity chef Nigella Lawson use a different method to make the process easier.

Lawson revealed on Twitter that when making gnocchi, “I prefer to bake the potatoes for them rather than boil them, as the drier the mixture the less flour you need, and the lighter they'll be." Cooking potatoes this way helps produce a more delicate and delicious gnocchi, preventing the dreaded dense and hard dumplings.

Chef Angela Hartnett recommends baking your potatoes on a bed of rock salt, which helps draw even more moisture out of them. It’s also essential to form your potatoes into gnocchi while they’re still hot, which prevents chewiness; if you have sensitive fingers, don't let the potatoes cool completely, at the very least.