Gluten free cooking is often a challenge; individuals wanting to develop gluten free recipes must have a love of learning, an experimentalist attitude and lots of patience. In my own experience over the past seven years I have had many Frankenstein type results especially when it comes to gluten free breads and pasta but those experiences have helped me develop my skills. Case in point; last night I craved Gnocchi the wonderful dumplings that are often served as the first course of an Italian dinner. I finally decided I would create a gluten free version which meant spending several hours researching traditional recipes. Most traditional recipes contain a good amount of flour and I found it interesting that every region of Italy has a preference, ricotta cheese, potato, breadcrumbs, flour... Learning about the different regional recipes and then combining recipes I realized there was a good chance I could create a potato and ricotta gnocchi that contained no gluten. I decided to use potato, ricotta, salt, pepper, Pecorino Romano cheese, eggs and a sprinkle of sweet white rice flour. When making traditional Gnocchi the flour helps to form the dough which is rolled into long ropes and then cut into little pillow shapes.  I realized using lots of rice flour would changed the consistency and taste of the Gnocchi so I decided to make the gnocchi more like small spoon drop dumplings. My decision worked well, I boiled a pot of water and dropped three dumplings in the water. Success, they held together and were very light although the water did turn a bit cloudy. I then experimented by placing several sections of dough on a cooking sheet to bake.  The dumplings turned light brown on the outside and pillow soft on the inside. This method worked wonderfully and with a bit of brown butter made a great alternative to the traditional flour Gnocchi. My advice to anyone learning to cook Gluten Free is research, learn as much as you can about alternatives flours. Experiment and give yourself credit for trying.  You will have great failures but they will provide you the knowledge you need to be a successful gluten free chef and if you need help it is available. The Gnocchi recipe is one of many recipes to be featured in the new Gluten Free Helper Bee cooking series I am launching this summer.