Potato gnocchi are perhaps the most well known variety in the UK, but variations of the dumpling can be seen from region to region in Italy. Tuscans use chestnut flour to create earthy brown chestnut gnocchi, and have a ricotta based version named Gnudi which is delicious boiled then tossed in nutty brown butter. Malfatti is another ricotta based gnocchi but contains spinach too.

In Piedmont they use buckwheat flour and traditionally serve in a cheese sauce in a dish called gnocchi alla bava. Gnocchi alla Romana from Rome uses a semolina based dough which is baked with plenty of Parmesan. In southern Italy, fine semolina is used in place of flour when making pasta dough, and their version of gnocchi is the same. Gnocchetti sardi or Malloreddus hails from Sardinia and is often flavoured with saffron to give them a golden colour and fragrant flavour.

Like pasta, gnocchi can be flavoured with spinach, herbs or even nettles. Other vegetables such as butternut squash, pumpkin or beetroot can also be used as demonstrated by Victoria Glass in her recipe for a gluten-free golden beetroot gnocchi.

Even the French have their own version. Gnocchi Parisienne uses choux pastry as the dough then cooks as you would potato gnocchi in boiling water and then browned in butter.

Emanuele Scarello served Gnocchi with garlic sauce and black truffle for a decadent starter, while Teresa Buongiorno stuffs gnocchi with a pesto for her Pink gnocchi with a green core and ricotta cream. Fish and gnocchi complement each other wonderfully as they both have a subtle flavour, Paul Welburn serves Sea bass with seaweed dumplings, clementine and lemon foam, while Dominic Chapman serves up halibut with gnocchi and wild mushrooms for an indulgent main course.