Paccheri is a new pasta shape particularly well suited for being stuffed. With truffle sauce, sausage, and porcini mushrooms, it is ideal for festive occasions. In winter, I always look for occasions to turn on the oven, and this recipe is perfect for holidays and meals with friends and family around a festive table.

It is a rich dish, and a bit time-consuming, but you can prepare the filling in a piping-bag and the sauce in advance, and compose the dish at the last moment.

Porcini mushrooms and white truffle are seasonal and are considered  the sovereigns of Italian cuisine.

Prep Time: 1 hour | Cooking Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour + 30 minutes | Yield: Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients

• ¾ lb. (300 g.) Paccheri pasta

Ingredients for the stuffing

• 13 oz. (400 g.) potatoes, boiled and mashed
• 6,5 oz. (180 g.) Italian sausage
• 1 big egg
• 1,5 oz. – 1/3 cup (50 g.) white truffle paste
• Sea salt and black pepper for seasoning

Ingredients for the sauce

• 1 + ½ tablespoons (20 g.) butter
• 3 tablespoons (20 g.) flour
• 1 cup (200 ml.) milk
• 3 oz. (100 g.) Porcini mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of fresh parsley, finely minced
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced
• For the final touch:
• Parmigiano Reggiano, a piece

Instructions

In a blender, combine the ingredients for the filling. Mince everything finely and pour them in a piping bag.

In a pot, make a béchamel melting the butter over low heat, combining the flour and salt and whisking with a fork as you add to prevent lumps. Add the milk a little at a time, whisking as you pour. Raise the heat to medium-high, and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 5 minutes to thicken, whisking to prevent and break up any lumps (eventually use an immersion blender).

In another small pot, combine olive oil, parsley and garlic and simmer for 1 minute over very low heat, then join the mushroom, cover with a lid and cook for 2 minutes.

Join half of the mushroom to the béchamel and mix with an immersion blender.

Pour the sauce on a serving dish that can be used in the oven.

In a pot with salted water, boil the pasta for 2/3 of the cooking time indicated on the box.

Drain pasta and sprinkle with a tablespoon of olive oil and mix. When it is tepid, stuff it with the filling and gently lay it on the sauce, vertically.

Arrange the remaining mushroom around pasta and grate chips of Parmigiano using a potato-peeler.

Bake it in pre-heated oven for 10 minutes at 400 F. (200 C).

These days, most recipes use some pre-cooked ingredients, but for these chestnut soufflés I prefer using fresh chestnuts and boiling them instead of using a chestnut jam, as is indicated in modern recipes. As in other cases, I was inspired by the father of Italian cuisine, Pellegrino Artusi, and his Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

While jam gives an excessively sugary taste to the soufflés, this preparation is lighter and more elegant.

Serve them immediately without trying to remove them from their moulds.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cooking Time: 40 minutes | Total Time: 60 minutes | Yield: Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients

• 5 oz. (150 g.) chestnuts
• 3 tablespoons (25 g.) icing sugar
• ¼ tablespoon vanilla
• 2 medium egg yolks
• A dash of marine salt
• ¾ cup medium egg whites (about 3 + ½ eggs – 140 g.), room temperature
• White sugar for ramekins
• Unsalted butter (for ramekins)

Special Equipment

• 4 (6-ounce) ramekins

Instructions

Boil the chestnuts in a pot with water for 10 minutes. Peel them, and cook them in milk for 30 minutes.

Put the chestnuts and milk in a bowl and, with an immersion blender, blend them. Pass through a sieve. Add the vanilla, yolks, and mix.

Heat the oven, 375 F (180 C), convected.

Butter ramekins, making upward strokes up the sides with a pastry brush. Sprinkle with sugar, tilting to coat completely and tapping out any excess. Arrange prepared ramekins on baking sheet.

Beat egg whites and a pinch of salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment on medium speed until frothy, about 2 minutes. Gradually add icing sugar, 1 Tbsp. at a time, and beat until medium peaks form, 6 to7 minutes.

Using a rubber spatula, fold one-quarter of the beaten egg whites into chestnut mixture to lighten. Fold in remaining egg whites in 2 batches. Divide batter among prepared ramekins, filling completely.

Transfer baking sheet with ramekins to oven and bake soufflés until puffed and tops feel firm to the touch, 25–28 minutes.

Butternut squash is one of the many joys of the season: rain and cold temperatures are compensated by incredibly rich and comforting foods. It is another gift from the Americas, like potatoes.

Accompanied by a creamy Taleggio cheese sauce, this dish speaks about the valley crossed through the Po river, its fog, its chilly temperatures. In this discomforting weather, nevertheless, the inhabitants created a varied cuisine, sophisticated, that requires some manual skills but is a great source of satisfaction.

One of my personal favorites is this recipe of gnocchi: the great canonic recipe of gnocchi is enriched by the addition of Butternut squash. It is extremely versatile: the 00 flour can be easily replaced by the same quantity of gluten-free flour in order to create a dish which can be tasted by our celiac guests. It is important to underline that the temperature of potatoes and squash is fundamental: just tepid, not too hot, or it would require an excessive quantity of flour, nor too cold, or it would be very hard to knead. Still, for the egg intolerant or vegan tablemates, we can decide not to add the egg. We must be quite skilled, though, since the egg makes pasta easier to knead. (and of course, the Taleggio sauce should be replaced by a vegetables one.

This recipe, like many others, is a starting point for a journey in the pleasures of Autumn.

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cooking Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 2 hours | Yield: Makes 6 servings.

Ingredients for gnocchi