When you feel like a pasta first course that’s rich, tasty and substantial enough to warrant ordering only one dish, then pasta alla valdostana is the recipe for you! The only people this recipe is not for are those of you who don’t like cheese… because the main ingredient is cheese from the Valle d’Aosta (also known as fontina).
A cheese that changes according to the “seasoning”
Fontina is a DOP cheese made only with milk from the Aosta Valley herds (that feed on high pastures in the summer and eat hay from the bottom of the valley in winter). For one form of this fontina cheese, 100 liters of very fresh milk are used. The taste of this cheese can be sweeter or more savory -- depending on the seasoning used. Usually, fontina is left to dry for at least 80 days on large wooden boards. After 80 days, the eyes (i.e. the holes present in the cheese) become large and very evident -- demonstrating the success of the cheese and its aging process.
Pasta alla Valdostana Recipe
Serves 4
Ingredients
12 oz. pasta, 7 oz. diced ham, 7 oz. fontina cheese, 4 oz. Parmigiano Reggiano, 7 oz. fresh cream, Salt, Parsley, Butter
First, put a pat of butter and diced ham in a pan on medium heat. Brown ham. Add fontina (cut into strips) and cream. In the meantime, bring a pot of salted water to boil. Add pasta. Once cooked al dente, drain pasta and pour into pan with ham and fontina. Let mixture cook over heat for a minute and then turn heat off. Add salt and sprinkle with Parmigiano Reggiano. Garnish with parsley and serve warm.