San Marino - Nidi di Rondine


Officially called The Most Serene Republic of San Marino. San Marino (to use it's more casual name) is a microstate completely surrounded by Italy and is only 24 square miles in size. Cute! They have what looks like an awesome aerial tramway for public transport too.

This recipe is also known as Swallow's Nests because of the shape of the spirals of pasta.

Ingredients:

Pasta sheets
Ham slices
Cheese slices
Flour
Butter
Milk
Nutmeg
Parmesan
Oil


Make up some bechamel sauce by melting some butter in a pan, adding some flour and cooking it for a few minutes. Gradually add milk until you have a thick creamy sauce. Add a pinch of nutmeg.


 Lay out the pasta sheets. Spread a little bechamel sauce on each one then top with cheese and ham.


 Roll up the pasta sheets.



 Cut them into quarters.


 Place in a casserole dish facing upwards. I can't imagine a Sparrow nesting in my casserole dish. It could happen though. Placing the spirals without them uncoiling is bloody difficult. I had to re-coil some as I went. :D


 Cover in the remaining bechamel sauce.


 Cover with a layer of grated parmesan cheese.


Bake at 200C for 30 minutes.


 We had ours with salad and garlic bread.


This dish was much anticipated by us! It's a very pleasing looking food with it's spirals of pasta filled with cheese and ham. It's nice to eat too with each spiral separating up on your plate nicely. The recommended cheese to use was emmental which is a bit mild I think. stronger cheese would add a bit of flavour to this recipe. I would have also added some mustard to the bechamel. It was a lovely casserole idea just a bit plain for us.

Coming up next Tuesday - Chicken Micronesia from err...Micronesia :D

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