From your first spoonful of cereal at breakfast, to that lunchtime sandwich and cupcake teatime treat, much of what we eat every day contains wheat, and with it, the protein that forms gluten.

Now imagine you were Italian and you'd grown up eating pasta and pizza. You'd trained as a chef to cook the meals you love and then one day, you're diagnosed with coeliac disease and have to stop eating them altogether.

This is exactly what happened to 63-year-old Giancarlo Caldesi, who runs two restaurants and a cookery school with his British wife Katie, and who also has type 2 diabetes.

"I close my eyes and think of original pizza in Naples - best pizza ever - and it makes me want to sit down and cry," admits the father of two boys, when we meet in London cookery school La Cucina Caldesi.

Just the day before, after a three-year struggle with "debilitating" symptoms, he'd finally had the official diagnosis from his doctor following positive blood test results. Caused by the immune system reacting to gluten, coeliac disease affects one in 100 people, with symptoms including bloating, diarrhoea, constipation, tiredness, mouth ulcers, sudden weight loss, hair loss and anaemia.

The only treatment is to entirely cut out gluten from the diet, which includes cutting wheat, barley and rye, in order to manage symptoms and avoid serious long-term complications.

His own experiences have spurred Giancarlo and his wife on to create a 'New Food, New You' cookery course, to show people that it is possible to cook gluten (and sugar) free meals that are still tasty and satisfying.

While Katie does most of the teaching, Giancarlo pops in from the restaurant to make sweet fresh almond milk from whole nuts in his special Kuvings machine. His arthritis is playing up today after a long flight back from Vietnam, but he's still able to shake hands, something he couldn't do when he was eating gluten.

"One of the major problems with any disease is that you think everything is normal. You eat something and then you have to run to the loo, you think that's normal. You tend to find excuses for yourself all the time and you don't find the truth of what is really wrong," he says.

"It's like the engine of a Ferrari, where you get that clean beautiful sound and then you put some sugar or gluten into it, some ghastly stuff, and suddenly that beautiful sound is gone and you know something is not right.

"When you eat the wheat, it makes you feel very sleepy, also your intestines are no good, you rush to the toilet - it's very debilitating, because you have to think of quick exits. You feel foggy and fuzzy and my arthritis was getting stronger and stronger."

Together, Giancarlo and his artist wife, who met in 1997 when she came to paint a mural at his first restaurant, devised a menu that is tasty and wholesome, filling but not draining.

Over a buzzy four hours, we make 10 recipes, some from ancient Rome, such as Lagana Seeded Wine Crackers with gluten-free ground flaxseeds and buckwheat flour, a delicious cake with no sugar or gluten, with the very tempting sounding title Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chocolate Mud Cake - and my personal highlights, Sweet Potato and Buckwheat Pizza and Courgetti.

The latter, 'spaghetti' made from courgettes, is something of a revelation. Very quick and fun to make, using a spiralizer which shreds the courgette into curly strips, it tastes like a healthier version of the real thing. Katie tells me her 12 and 14-year-old boys don't even notice the difference, as long as she peels the courgette first to disguise the green.

On this new diet, Giancarlo has lost 11 kilos and feels like a new man: "From the top of my head, three quarters of my body is feeling completely different, liberated actually, full of life. I can rationally think straight and faster, and the magical thing is it's lasting.

"And also now, if I eat something wrong, I know immediately because of the pain. And I don't eat those things, because I have decided to be well is worth more."

Try some of the Caldesis' recipes for yourself...

:: SWEET POTATO AND BUCKWHEAT PIZZA

(Makes 4 palm-sized pizzas)

For the base:

100g cooked sweet potato, mashed

100g buckwheat flour

15g parmesan cheese, finely grated

2 large eggs, separated

1/2tsp fine salt

3/4tsp gluten-free baking powder

120ml cold water

For the sauce:

200g tinned plum tomatoes

1tsp (heaped) dried oregano

1/2tsp fine salt

1tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

For the pizzas:

1 x 125g ball of buffalo mozzarella, drained

2tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Handful of basil leaves

Further toppings could be olives, rocket, ham, figs, smoked bacon, chorizo, salami, spinach

Bake the potato in the oven or microwave until soft. Preheat the oven to 200C and put two oven trays inside, spaced apart, upside down so that they become hot. Cut two pieces of baking parchment the size of the trays and set aside for later. Make up the tomato sauce by blending the ingredients together with a stick blender or liquidiser.

Scoop out the flesh from the potato skin and put into a bowl, mash with a fork or potato masher and allow to cool. It should be smooth, if it isn't, use a stick blender to get rid of any lumps. When the potato is at room temperature, add the rest of the ingredients for the base, including the egg yolks, but leave out the egg whites at this stage. Beat together until smooth using a wooden spoon or spatula. Whisk the egg white until it forms stiff peaks and then gently fold into the potato mixture a little at a time. Do not over-mix as you want to keep the mixture as light as possible.

Divide the mixture into four and spoon onto the baking parchment, two per piece. Spread them out with a metal spoon or a large palette knife into discs around 0.5 to 1cm thick. Put them into the oven to cook for eight minutes, or until firm to the touch and the edges become golden brown. Remove from the oven and peel away the paper to stop it sweating underneath - keep the paper for later. Put the pizza base onto a wire rack to cool for a few minutes. This stage can be done in advance, leaving the pizza to be cooked again later after topping. It can also be cooled, wrapped tightly in cling film and kept in the fridge for three days, or frozen for three months at this stage. Defrost before use.

When you are ready to cook the pizzas, spoon a couple of tablespoons of the tomato sauce over each one and tear over the mozzarella. Dress with any further toppings and slide them back onto the baking parchment into the oven using a pizza shovel or flat tray. Bake for eight to 10 minutes until the mozzarella is bubbling and the crust becomes crisp and browned. Remove from the oven and serve with a drizzle of oil and basil leaves.

:: COURGETTI WITH RAW SAUCE 'ALLA CHECCA'

(Serves 4 as a main course and 6 as a starter)

320g gluten-free spaghetti or courgetti from 3 courgettes

3tbsp of extra-virgin olive oil

25g parmigiano reggiano, finely grated - optional

100g ricotta to serve - optional

For the sauce:

200g cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters

1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped

3tbsp parsley (approx 8g), finely chopped

3tbsp basil (approx 8g), finely chopped

20g capers, rinsed well

80g (stoned weight) olives, cut into quarters

1/2-1 red chilli, finely chopped - taste it and add according to strength

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

125g buffalo mozzarella, roughly torn

3tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Put the courgettes through the spiralizer on the finer cutter to form long strands like tagliolini. Mix all the ingredients together for the sauce in a large serving bowl.

Heat the extra-virgin olive oil in a large frying pan over a gentle heat. (Giancarlo does this with a crushed garlic clove and a few slices of chilli to flavour the oil, but it's not strictly necessary). Pan-fry the courgetti tossing them in the pan with tongs for just a minute or two to heat. Use tongs to remove them from the pan, leaving any water from the courgetti in the pan and stir into the sauce. Top with spoonfuls of ricotta and parmesan, if using. Serve straight away.

:: BLACK BEAN AND SWEET POTATO CHOCOLATE MUD CAKE

(Makes 10-12 small slices)

200g cooked black beans

100g cooked sweet potato

4 eggs, separated

75g organic Green & Blacks cocoa powder

125g Total Sweet (xylitol) or 5tbsp of rice malt syrup or 150g medjool dates

75g salted butter or coconut oil

1tsp vanilla extract

1tsp baking powder

3-5tbsp of milk, to loosen the batter

A handful of walnuts - optional

A handful of raspberries - optional

For the coconut frosting:

1 x 400g can organic full-fat coconut milk (chilled overnight in can)

Few drops vanilla extract or the seeds from a vanilla pod

Handful of raspberries or walnuts, for decorating

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line an approx 20cm square or round tin with a piece of baking parchment. Puree the black beans and sweet potato in a food processor or mash them finely with a ricer or potato masher. To this mixture, add the egg yolks, cocoa, sweetener, butter, vanilla, baking powder and three tablespoons of milk. Whizz to blend until smooth. If the batter seems very stiff, add another tablespoonful or two of milk to loosen it. It should be just soft enough to drop from a spoon, rather than firm enough to stay there. This will partly depend on your choice of sweetener and fat. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.

Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until they form stiff peaks. Take a large spoonful and add it to the chocolate mixture to loosen it further. Now gently fold in the rest of the egg whites taking care not to lose the bubbles of air. If you are going to add walnuts or raspberries, do so now, gently folding them in. Pour the mixture into the tin and use a palette knife or spatula to smooth it down. Put into the oven for 30 minutes or until the top is set firm but the cake has a slight wobble underneath. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

For the topping, carefully spoon the dense coconut cream from the top of a can that has been standing in the fridge overnight into a bowl. The underneath coconut water can be kept for smoothies, or using with oats instead of milk. Whip the coconut cream and vanilla with a whisk until stiff and airy. Spoon on top of the cooled cake and decorate with raspberries or walnuts.

:: Recipes courtesy of La Cucina Caldesi. To find out more about the 'New Food, New You' cookery course, visit caldesi.com

THREE OF THE BEST... Spiralizers

:: Lurch Vegetable Spirali, £25.59 (www.lakeland.co.uk)

This little plastic gadget has transformed mealtimes and sits quite happily on our small worktop, with non-slip rubber feet to suction it down. It comes with three different interchangeable blades and turns courgettes into spaghetti in seconds, grates carrots quickly and is very easy to clean. Brilliant!

:: GEFU Spiralfix Spiralizer, £38 (www.ukjuicers.com)

Not being especially good with gadgets, it did take me a while to work out how to use this spirilizer, but once I did, I found it really satisfying and enjoyable to use. Can't wait to sneakily increase my kids' veggie intake by making courgetti!

:: ProCook Spiralizer, £27 (www.procook.co.uk)

Remarkably compact considering the scope of its skills - two interchangeable blades for either spaghetti or spirals, non-stick suction feet, a sleek stainless steel and black design, and the basis of a healthy meal in seconds. It's really easy to clean and pack away too.