What being a grown up has taught me:
- There’s no way to turn couch surfing into exercise.
- I cannot be a mermaid for a day, no matter how hard I will myself to grow a tail.
- Superman isn’t going to swoop down out of the sky and carry me away with him. Heck, he can’t even find a phone booth these days.
- Making my daughter guffaw makes my heart happy
- Eating around the table with loved ones is worth a pile of dirty dishes.
- There are superheroes in every day life, like my husband who quietly shovels our neighbor’s drive when he thinks no one is looking.
The beauty of Nidi di Rondine is how each portion spirals in on itself like a rose or bird’s nest or… or… a giant food hug. The casserole makes a particularly stunning contribution to a dinner party potluck and is a great conversation starter.
Vegetarian? leave out the ham and include just about any vegetable you can think of, like spinach or mushrooms.
In a hurry? Try using ricotta instead of bechamel and fresh lasagna sheets from your grocer’s refrigerator section.
Even more in a hurry? Our neighbors made a version with puff pastry instead of pasta and cooked the casserole at 400F for 20 minutes. They even topped it with a little tomato sauce.
Bottom line? No matter how you roll it, Nidi Di Rondine wants to be a part of your life.
Ingredients:
1/2 batch Homemade pasta dough, or store-bought sheets of fresh lasagna
Bechamel sauce:
2 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/8 tsp nutmeg
salt
Filling:
8-10 oz thin Ham slices
8-10 oz very thin cheese slices (like emmentalier or mozarella)
1/2 cup parmesan to spoon on top of each nest
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
Method:
Let’s go to a special castle in San Marino, where the swallows swoop and gentle breezes tuft along the mountainside. This is the perfect place for a daydream. A perfect place to make Nidi di Rondine, or Swallow’s Nests.
Can you see me waving from the window?
Guaita fortress and part of the city (view from above Monte Titano). Photo by Ricardo André Frantz.
Start by making the homemade pasta. Set it aside to rest for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the bechamel: melt the butter in a pot. Whisk in the flour and nutmeg until completely combined, then whisk together with a little milk. Keep adding milk a little at a time until a smooth, thick sauce forms. Set aside.
Next, roll out the pasta dough into a large rectangle (remember we’re just using half a batch)…
My rectangle was about 14″x21″ or so (bigger is fine)
Top with half the bechamel sauce… then ham, then cheese.
Tip – use really thin slices of cheese…have the deli counter slice it for you.
P.S. This is what you do if you realize you don’t have enough ham and cheese slices… checkerboard it up!
But ideally, yours would be covered all over with cheese. Shredded cheese works, too.
Then roll up into a long tube. Freeze for about 30 minutes (this will make it so easy to slice). If you need to slice it in half to fit in your freezer, go for it.
Now we’re ready for the fun part.
Preheat the oven to 325F and oil a casserole liberally. Spoon in the remaining half of the bechamel sauce.
Remove the pasta roll from the freezer and slice to make individual nests. The best way to make them equal sized is to slice the roll in half, then half again, and so on. (mine ended up being about 1 1/2 inches high).
Brush the sides with olive oil so they don’t stick to each other and then place, cut side up in the casserole. Top with 1/2-1 tsp grated Parmesan per spiral and bake at 325F for 45-50 min…
TIP: The less Parmesan you add to the spirals, the easier it will be to see their lovely design.
Unbelievable…
… and just like that, San Marino has my heart.
These look great! I hate to think what the fat and calorie count is though! If we finally get some snow around here i won’t care so much because I will X-country ski it off!
It’s really not too bad! Bechamel is mostly milk… and the cheese is sliced thin… and that’s the story I’m sticking to haha
Let me say this. I want to eat this so badly that it is hurting me. I am actually salivating – literally – all over the keyboard, and that is not a very lady-like thing to do.
gosh, I love EVERYTHING about this recipe…. now I wonder if I could pull this for our Dec 24th dinner…. it could be hard, but wow, I really really REALLY want to have it
awesome recipe, this one goes to my Pinterest right away!
You can do it… and one thing I did was assemble the casserole and refrigerate it until needed. So you can make it in the am and bake it for dinner. That’ll take some pressure off you… and thanks for pinning!
Yay!!! You saved me from another agonizing night of “what to cook tomorrow”… this looks sooo great that I’ll have to make it tonight
THANK YOU!!!
Awesome! Take a picture if you have time and share it on our Community photo board
Good luck!
The idea Sally had is genius. It’s such a special dish, and would be perfect for a Christmas Eve dinner. Hmmm. I wonder if I can pull it off.
You can do it! Just make it at 8 am so you have enough time to try again, should things get messy
I wonder if you can use a gnocchi dough for this?
My experience is that doesn’t roll as well, so you’d have to adapt the technique to make it work. Interesting idea, though.
I love the way this looks and I’m sure it tastes fantastic. There’s nothing better than a dish full of bubbly cheese on a cold winter’s day. Yum!
Hi Sasha,
I made theese for tonight. Do you cover with foil for baking?
Oh, great! Nope. Bake uncovered! Enjoy
This is a great recipe. Hubby loved it!
Made these and they were great. Hubby loved it!
I’m so glad! Thanks for letting us know how it went, Judi.
We’re making them again for Christmas Eve dinner 
G’day! I was glad when I stumbled onto your wonderful site via Google! IS 41 C at the moment here, but have this “on my list to do!” Looks sooooooooooooo comforting, and can tell it will already be FANTASTIC too!
G’day to you
Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
I saw this on pinterest and immediately pinned because of a connection I have to someone who grew up in San Marino…..I have made it a few times and it will definitely be in our regular dinner rotation!!
Awesome, Emily… so glad! I would love to be in San Marino.
I’m dying to make this but have no idea where I’d go to get the already made lasagne sheets. Any ideas? I live in Houston so I’m sure its availalbe…just don’t know where to start looking.
I’d try Whole Foods (the fresh pasta refrigerator).. or rolling out your own isn’t so bad, really! Just give it 30 second rests between rolls, when it starts to spring back on you. Good luck!
G’day! As a friendly follow up, I have now made your WONDERFUL recipe! Thank you for inspiring me to do!
I LOVE fresh pasta and I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND people make this! LOVE the results too! Thank you!
Here’s a photo and what I wrote about them too! Hope you enjoy!
http://whatsonthelist.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/swallows-nests-2/