Baked Four-Cheese Spirali
This gooey four-cheese baked pasta dish, from Gennaro Contaldo, takes less than 40 minutes to prepare and cook, making it a great speedy, mid-week recipe. In this recipe Gennaro uses the cheeses Taleggio, Parmesan, fontina and dolcelatte, but you can add any leftover cheeses you have in your fridge.
From the book
Jamie’s Food Tube: The Pasta Book
Become a master of pasta with Gennaro's authentic Italian recipes
Family favourite sauces that you know and love
Step-by-step guide to making your own fresh pasta
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Introduction
This cosy dish is a great way to use up any leftover cheeses you have, so use whatever you’ve got in stock.
Ingredients
| 30g | unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing |
| 400g | spirali |
| sea salt and freshly ground black pepper | |
| 1 x 150g | higher-welfare piece of cooked ham |
| 80g | fontina cheese |
| 80g | Taleggio cheese |
| 80g | dolcelatte cheese |
| 60g | Parmesan cheese |
| 40g | shelled walnuts |
| 20g | stale white breadcrumbs |
| extra virgin olive oil |
Essential kit
You will need: a a 20cm square ovenproof baking dish.
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Grease a 20cm square ovenproof baking dish with a little butter. Cook the spirali in a large pan of boiling salted water until very al dente – it’ll continue cooking in the oven so it’s important to undercook it.
Meanwhile, cut the ham into cubes and roughly chop the fontina, Taleggio and dolcelatte. Melt the butter in a large frying pan and stir in the ham. Cook for 1 minute, remove the pan from the heat, then add the chopped cheeses and allow to melt, stirring occasionally. Reserving some of the cooking water, drain the spirali and add to the sauce. Toss well, adding a splash of the cooking water to loosen, if needed. Finely grate in two-thirds of the Parmesan and season with a good twist of pepper, then transfer to the prepared baking dish.
Finely chop the walnuts and put them into a bowl with the breadcrumbs and 1 tablespoon of oil. Finely grate in the remaining Parmesan, mix well, then sprinkle over the pasta. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden and looking fantastic!
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