Fusilli look like well-threaded screws, and are perfect for absorbing a sauce, a cheese sauce. Though more of a spring/fall dish, it will also work nicely in the summer, especially if served with a crisp, fruity white wine. To serve 4:
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 pound fusilli (corkscrews in English)
- 1/2 pound (200 g) fontina valdostana (a moderately firm cheese made in rounds, from the Val D'Aosta,
- which melts wonderfully -- do not use the generic, industrial fontina that's extruded in blocks in Italy)
- 1/3 cup fresh unsalted butter
- Grated Parmigiano
- 4-5 leaves fresh sage
Preparation:
Set a pot of water to boil, salt it lightly, and as it heats thinly slice the cheese. When the water boils add the pasta, and while it's cooking melt the butter, flavoring it with the sage. Drain the pasta when it's still quite al dente, remove the sage from the butter, and stir the butter into the pasta, together with a heaping tablespoon of grated Parmigiano.Preheat your oven to 360 F (180 C).
Take an oven-proof dish large enough to hold the volume of pasta and put down a first layer of pasta. Cover the pasta with a layer of cheese, and continue alternating pasta and cheese until all is used up, finishing off with a layer of cheese.
Bake the fusilli for about ten minutes, and serve.
