Gnocchi woes

In college, I visited Tula in Palo Alto, and she took me to her favorite Italian restaurant. We sat by the window and looked out over the beautiful cobblestone streets, and as usual I hadn't the faintest idea of what to order. She said her favorite thing there is the gnocchi, so I got that, never having had gnocchi before. It was wonderful, and I've been trying to make it in my kitchen ever since.

Well, 9 years and many many failures later, I've decided to give up. I've tried making it up on my own, looking on the internet, trying numerous versions in the Spoon, with potato and without potato. Friday, I tried Julia Child's potato recipe, and it was so awful, despite the two hours it took me to make, we threw it in the trash; actually, gnocchi is really the only food I've ever had to throw away because they've been so awful. Once I tried flour gnocchi, and the recipe said it was baked with just some butter dotted on top, and after a few minutes in the oven the individual pieces had all melted together to form a sheet of goey, buttery awfulness. I'd happily order it in restaurants, but I haven't seen it anywhere. The saddest thing is that the pictures with the recipes look so good, and cookbooks always say how easy it is to make gnocchi, but I've ever done it right. Sigh! Chris ended up going out and buying me gnocchi that you just put in boiling water for a few minutes, like fresh pasta. We'll see how that goes.