If I'm going to the effort of making jacket potatoes (and by effort I mean putting them in the oven for an hour), I will almost always pop in a few extra spuds to make gnocchi for a later meal. The difference between shop-bought and homemade gnocchi is vast, especially the vac-packed, long-life kind, which are dense and can be heavy. Freshly made gnocchi, with fluffy baked potatoes, however, are light as air, pillowy and silky. If that sounds intimidating, let me reassure you that this recipe is really forgiving, and much easier than making fresh sheet pasta. I love them served simply, as here, with a slightly nutty sage butter and lots of parmesan. The simple sauce lets those gnocchi sing.
A great way to make extra-flavourful fluffy pillows of gnocchi is to make them with leftover baked potato. Baking the potatoes instead of boiling them reduces their moisture content, meaning less flour is required, which in turn results in a lighter, less pasty gnocchi.