Gnocchi and Tortellini in four cheese sauce

What you need:

• One packet of Gnocchi, one packet of Tortellini (if you get the vaccuum
  packed ones you won't need to spend a fortune)
• 2 pints of milk
• Butter and flour to make a roux for that amount of milk (usually I use my
  sifter filled half full and about a fifth of a butter block, but I don't know how
  much either of those measurements is)
• Four cheeses - I like a really strong Cheddar (4+), fresh Parmesan,
  Marscapone and Emmental or Gruyere
• Nutmeg, mustard, salt and pepper
• optional: a large german sausage (like the Mattesons U-shaped one),
  a tin of whole plum tomatoes

Another invention of necessity, this dish was created by moi when we had nothing to eat in the house apart from the aforementioned pasta and loads of cheese. The first attempt at this dish didn't use the cheeses named but an odd assortment of Boursin, Edam, Red Leicester and others, and so you can substitute any cheeses you like for the ones listed above but they are probably the most appropriate.

To start with, boil some water and just flash the pasta through it to start it cooking. The Gnocchi only takes about two minutes to cook anyway, so don't go and answer the phone when preparing them. While you're waiting for the water to boil, start your roux. Put the butter into a medium-sized pan and when it starts foaming, add the flour (you should definitely sift it). Mix the two together well until it looks like you've got golden breadcrumbs in the pan and then start adding the milk, just a little at a time. At first the flour goes all sticky but keep beating away at it and it will turn into a larger ball to start with, but eventually it will turn into the sauce as you add more and more milk. Once you got your sauce ready it's time to start adding flavouring to it.

I like to put a dessertspoonful of Dijon mustard, plenty of pepper, salt and more nutmeg than you would expect given the quantity of sauce. Then I add the whole Mascarpone tub (I think it's about 250g) and all of the grated cheddar (Oh, didn't I say? You need to grate all the cheese apart from the Mascarpone which is a bit tricky for that). Mix furiously until it's all incorporated.

Now, while you've been doing all this, you should have also flashed the pasta through the boiling water and got out a large oven dish, a lasagne dish is ideal. Put the pasta into the dish, you don't need to grease it, and make sure that they are nicely mixed together - you don't want anyone complaining that they only got Gnocchi, do you? Pour the sauce over the dish and then sprinkle it with the Parmesan and the Gruyere/Emmental. Bung it in the oven for about half an hour at about 180°C.

To accompany this dish, I like to microwave the sausage and heat the tomatoes over a low heat. Serve the pasta by cutting it into blocks about four inches square, put some tomatoes in the bowl with plenty of juice and inish off with a chunk of the sausage and make sure there's plenty of mustard for it. And voilà, a kind of German-Italian classic.

last updated: 22nd February 1997