Top Gnocchi

(Photo by Jim Scherer)

For those who prefer their pasta and potatoes in a single package, there are potato gnocchi, tiny dumplings that are notoriously tricky to make well. That's why I buy them. (I buy the ricotta and the semolina kinds, too.) This spring, I gathered several brands of supermarket and specialty-shop potato gnocchi and a tasting panel of nine fearless carb lovers to evaluate them. The gnocchi were cooked according to package directions and tasted plain.

THE WINNER Mediterranea Potato Gnocchi, $1.49 for 1.1 pounds at Trader Joe's (multiple area locations, traderjoes.com). Tasters called the vacuum-packed gnocchi imported from Italy "tender," "light," and "fluffy."

THE RUNNERS-UP For a fairly distant second, it was a tie between Serino's Italian Foods Potato Gnocchi, made and frozen in Massachusetts, $3.99 for 1 pound, and La Regina Potato Gnocchi, vacuum-packed and imported from Italy, $3.49 for 17.5 ounces. Both are sold at Pemberton Farms & Garden Center (2225 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, 617-491-2244, pembertonfarms.com).

Send comments or suggestions to Adam Ried at cooking@globe.com.