Today we visit 90-year-old Adriana in Coriano, Rimini, as she shares her special twist on classic lasagna: Lasagna Roll-Ups (Nidi di Rondine)—a delicious baked pasta dish she learned through years of recipe swapping with friends.
Adriana, a lifelong home cook, walks us through every step of this comforting recipe, from making the fresh pasta dough to preparing the filling, béchamel, and tomato sauces—all from scratch.
Ingredients: For the Dough: – 6 eggs – 600g soft wheat flour
For the Filling: – 250g ham – 200g Fontina cheese – 80g Parmesan cheese
For the Béchamel Sauce: – 1 liter whole milk – 80g all-purpose flour – 100g butter – Salt to taste
For the Tomato Sauce: – 5 fresh tomatoes, chopped – A few spoonfuls of tomato passata – 1 small onion, chopped – Extra virgin olive oil – Pinch of salt
Buon appetito! Join us for a heartwarming recipe from Italy’s countryside kitchen.
91-year-old Adriana lives in Coriano near Rimini.
She refuses to retire and has been a housekeeper for a family for the last 20 years.
She takes care of the vegetable garden, the chickens
and makes sure their pantry and freezer is stocked with delicious pasta.
My God!
She's using a soft wheat flour from the local mill.
She adds a little olive oil and starts with four eggs.
These are from the chickens outside so sizes vary.
She starts mixing the dough and then cracks in another two eggs as they're quite small.
Adriana has been making pasta since she was 10 years old.
Her dough scrape, or razzamattere, belonged to her grandmother.
She kneads the dough for about 10 minutes until it is smooth.
It then has to rest for 30 minutes.
Adriana rolls out the dough, turning the sfoglia, or pasta sheet, regularly for an even thickness.
She keeps it well floured as she goes.
The pasta sheet doesn't need to be as thin as for tagliatelle and it has the feel of heavy linen.
Adriana leaves it to dry a little while she makes a fresh tomato sauce.
She chops an onion from the garden and sautes it in some olive oil.
She dices fresh tomatoes.
And adds these pieces to the pan.
She pours in a little of her homemade passata for extra flavour.
Her doctor likes to drink a glass of her passata every morning.
We boil the tomatoes in a pan, and then we put them in a tomato machine.
Then we bottle them here, and we make them in Bagnamaria, without anything inside.
Even to drink!
My doctor drinks a glass every morning.
She adds the basil leaves she's just picked.
Adriana adds a generous sprinkling of salt.
She slices the sfoglia into large strips, which she blanches in simmering salted water for a minute.
She then dunks them in cold water to stop them cooking, and then lays them out on the tablecloth to dry.
She covers each sheet with some cooked ham, followed by sliced fontina cheese.
This is a modern recipe that she learnt from swapping recipes with her friends.
She sprinkles everything with grated Parmigiano cheese.
Adriana rolls up each pasta strip tightly.
Adriana has already made some white sauce, using a litre of whole milk, 80g of flour and 100g of butter.
She has allowed it to cool.
She spoons some onto the base of her dish.
She slices it, making sure each piece is the same depth for even cooking, and places the pasta rolls cut side up.
Adriana repeats the process until she has filled the dish with these little pasta nests.
She dolps generous tablespoons of bechamel over the top, followed by some of the tomato sauce,
to create a patchwork of flavours and colour.
She bakes this in a 180°C oven for 35-40 minutes until it is golden and bubbling.
While it cooks, she shows us a photo of when she was 45 years old, with her friends,
making pasta at a local food festival.
How old were you when you were there?
I was 45 years old.
Oh, how beautiful they are!
Here they are, our pasta nests.
Put them on a plate.
Oh, beautiful, with the tomato sauce.
Very good!
And then we all sit down to lunch.
This is Billy, my husband, who is taste tester today.
Buon appetito!
Fantastic! I'm very, very happy!
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and come back next week when Francesca makes strascinati
con fave e cicoria from Puglia.
