Summary

Ingredients

• 400 g spinach leaves, frozen
• 250 g pasta (e.. tortilioni)

For the sauce:

• 20 g oil or butter (tip: olive oil)
• 1 large onion (s)
• 2 small cloves garlic
• 100 g ham, cooked
• 50 grams flour
• 600 ml milk, low in fat
• salt and pepper
• Nutmeg, grated
• 100 g cheese, rated (e.. Edam, Emmentaler, sheep cheese)
• possibly herbs for seasoning, to taste

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Instructions

1. Cook the pasta in 2.5 liters of boiling salted water (not too little salt, about 10 to 15g) according to the manufacturer`s instructions until al dente, rinse in a sieve with cold water, then drain.
2. At the same time, defrost the frozen spinach leaves (no creamed spinach!) In the microwave (do not boil). Alternatively, you can use 500 g fresh spinach leaves. Then read it out, wash it and blanch it (which is usually too much work for me).
3. For the sauce, peel off the onion and the two cloves of garlic and dice finely. Cut the cooked ham into pieces. In a closed small saucepan, heat the oil on low heat and sauté the onion and garlic cubes in it until translucent (about five to ten minutes).
4. Add the ham pieces and fry briefly.
5. Add the flour and heat while stirring until it is light yellow after a short time.
6. Pour in the milk and beat thoroughly with a whisk; make sure that there are no lumps. Bring the sauce to the boil, stirring constantly, bring to the boil briefly and remove from the heat.
7. Season well (!) With salt, pepper and grated nutmeg. The (unseasoned) spinach can tolerate the spicy sauce, otherwise the whole gratin will be too laff. Refine the sauce with a little chives or Italian spices (basil, oregano) to taste.
8. Mix the pasta, spinach and sauce thoroughly and pour into a baking dish. Sprinkle the cheese on top and slide the mold onto the wire rack in the oven. (Aesthetes first fill about 2/3 of the pasta into the baking dish, spread the spinach and sauce over it, and then cover the baking dish with the rest of the pasta and of course the cheese. But I like it mixed better.)
9. Top / bottom heat: approx. 200 ° C (preheated)
10. Hot air: about 180 ° C (not preheated)
11. Gas: about level 4 (not preheated)
12. Baking time: around 30 to 40 minutes. The casserole is ready when the cheese has melted and starts to turn slightly brown (exception: sheep`s cheese does not run or runs very little, so just pay attention to the browning).
13. Without ham, this casserole is also a very tasty vegetarian dish!