This makes a splendid mid-week supper, or a hearty winter lunch. The carbohydrate element (the potato gnocchi) requires no work at all. Comfort food, best served with a green salad. I know there is the odd pea contained within, but it still needs the freshness of a crisp, dressed lettuce. Follow this link for some ideas.

If you want to experiment with some British alternatives to Gruyère, follow this link.

Recipe for Gnocchi pie of ham hock and peas

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 450g/1 lb (or a whole packet of 500g if that’s what you can easily find) potato gnocchi (ideally with spinach incorporated – the Dell’Ugo brand makes this)
• 400g/14 oz/2⅔ cups frozen peas
• 300 ml/1¼ cups crème fraîche
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 180g/6 oz pulled ham hock
• juice and zest of half a lemon
• salt (go easy with this as the ham is quite salty) and pepper
• 50g/½ cup grated Gruyère (or anything in your fridge which needs using up). Fior delle Alpi is a wonderful substitute, with its bold, mountain flavour.

Method

1. Boil a full kettle of water.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
3. Put the gnocchi into a large heatproof bowl, and pour over the boiling water. Leave for a couple of minutes and then drain.
4. Meanwhile, in an ovenproof dish, mix the peas, crème fraîche, mustard, and seasoning. Add the gnocchi once it’s drained. Mix in the lemon zest. Mix in a little of the ham hock.
5. Scatter over the remaining ham hock. Squeeze over the lemon juice. Scatter over the grated cheese.
6. Serve.