Pasta Roses With Zucchini and Ham

Photo: Carmelita Caruana

Ingredients

For four people you will need:

inch Freshly made pasta wide rectangles as for lasagne

About 250ml (1 cup) bechamel sauce

made with 25g (scant 1 ounce) flour, 25g butter, 250 ml milk

300 grams (10 and a half ounces) cooked ham in slices or diced

300 grams Fontina (or substitute Emmenthal) cheese in thinnest pos

2 tablespoons butter (or substitute cold milk)

optional: 40g Parmigiano Reggiano to sprinkle on top

Preparation

To make the Besciamella with Zucchini Puree:

Trim ends off washed zucchini then chop or slice roughly.

Bring a small pan of cold water to the boil, salt when the water is boiling and then tip in the zucchini and cook till tender

Strain out and immediately refresh in very cold water. Drain, place in a deep beaker and whizz till smooth using an immersion blender. Set aside.

Place the milk to heat in a small sauce pan while in another pan you cook the butter and flour, whisking them together to make the base.

When the milk comes to the boil take both pans off the heat and pour all the milk at once onto the base, whisking hard with a large whisk to blend the two into a smooth and lump free white sauce. Should lump forms don't worry, just strain the white sauce through a sieve.

Season with salt or if you prefer with plenty of freshly grated nutmeg and about 20g of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

To pre-cook the Pasta:

Prepare a wide shallow pan into which you place cold milk to come about an inch high.

Cook just 2 or 3 pasta pieces at a time in salted boiling water to which you have added a little oil, for 2/3 minutes if the pasta is freshly made. Remove with a slotted spoon and place in the pan with the milk to stop the cooking. Then take out, let the milk drip off and place to dry on clean tea towels on your work surface. Turn them over to dry both sides

To fill and assemble the Rosette:

Prepare a buttered baking dish and pre-heat the oven to 200° C ( 90 ° F).

Spread a thin layer of béchamel on the pasta pieces, then sprinkle with grated P-R. cheese and place ham and cheese slices on top

Roll up each in piece into a cylinder and cut into two or three even sized rolls between 3 and 6 cm high as you prefer.

Place them close together cut side up in the buttered baking dish continuing the process till it is full - if you have space left use crumpled balls of cooking foil to fill in the space and keep the rolls upright.

I like to use kitchen scissors to nick the rolls in a few places and pulls out pasta "petals" turning them down a little so they stay "open" during baking.

Melt 2 tbsp butter and drizzle this over the top of the roses, or to save calories, simply brush the tops with milk using a pastry brush or a couple of rolled up sheets of strong kitchen paper. You can also sprinkle with extra just-grated Reggiano if you like.

Bake at 200° C for about 30 minutes or till the top of the roses is crisp and golden then serve placing vertically or horizontally on individual plates as you prefer.

Variations: Leave the vegetables out altogether for the traditional recipe or use alternative vegetables, in a puree as above or simply placed on top of the ham. According to what is in season, cooked mushrooms, asparagus, leeks, fennel, artichokes, blanched Swiss Chard leaves all work well..

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About

I like this dish because it is a quick way of making a filled pasta. It does not require the time consuming individual folding of little pasta squares around a filling. And it looks so appealing besides and it is relatively light.