Baked pasta with four cheeses

Another winner from the Classic Pasta Cookbook, this recipe comes together quite easily once you have the cheeses on hand. It takes a bit more time than most pasta recipes due to the extra baking step, but is still pretty quick. It is a pretty heavy and creamy meal, though, so you probably want to add something salad-y to balance it out.

The recipe as written calls for penne. We used a 2:1 mix of green rotini (made with spinach, broccoli, kale, and zucchini) and plain penne.

Ingredients, for 500g dried pasta

• 125mL table cream
• 15mL butter
• 128g fontina, grated
• 64g mascarpone
• 64g gorgonzola (the recipe calls for hard crumbled gorgonzola; we used gorgonzola dolce and it turned out just fine)
• a generous portion (perhaps 500mL) of finely grated fresh parmesan

Procedure

1. Start the pasta water boiling and preheat the oven to 450°F. Once the water is boiling, toss in some salt and the pasta.
2. Meanwhile, in a large pot, melt the butter into the cream over medium low heat.
3. Stir in the fontina, mascarpone, gorgonzola, and half the parmesan. Stir continuously until it has melted and the sauce is smooth and creamy. (If the sauce ends up thickening into a kind of elastic glop, stir in more cream until it cooperates.)
4. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and remove from the heat.
5. Once the pasta is cooked molto al dente (about a minute before al dente), drain it and add it to the pot with the sauce. Toss well until covered.
6. Fill a casserole dish with the pasta/sauce mix. Top with the remaining parmesan. Bake until the parmesan turns golden brown, about 10-15 minutes.
7. Let stand for 5 minutes, then eat.