Paccheri stuffed with sausage and mushrooms

To make paccheri ripieni con salsiccia e funghi, wash, trim and slice the leek 1 . Then clean the mushrooms and remove any remaining soil with a slightly moistened cloth and cut them into small cubes. Pour the olive oil and the whole garlic into a large saucepan, add the sliced leek and let it fry on a low heat for at least 10 minutes.

In the meantime, remove the casing from the sausage, shell it and, when the leek is soft, pour it into the pan. Allow the sausage to brown over a low heat, turning it often, then deglaze with the white wine.

Let it evaporate for a few moments, then add the tomato paste and mushrooms. Cook over a high heat for 10 minutes, then season with salt and pepper and remove the clove of garlic.

Before turning off the heat, make sure the mixture in the pan is dry, then season with salt, pepper and thyme flakes and let everything cool down. Prepare a rather fluid béchamel sauce by melting the butter in a saucepan, then adding the flour and stirring until you obtain a hazelnut-coloured mixture to which you add the hot milk. Stir well until the béchamel starts to simmer, then add salt and nutmeg powder. When the béchamel starts to thicken slightly, turn off the heat. Place a pot filled with salted water on the stove and bring to the boil, it will be used to cook the paccheri.

In the meantime, pour the ricotta into a bowl, add 80 g Parmesan cheese and the now-warm leek, sausage and mushroom mixture, stir and add salt if necessary.

Put the mixture into a piping bag without a nozzle. Boil the paccheri in plenty of salted water, draining them halfway through cooking, then lightly grease them with oil so they don't stick together (be very careful not to break them).

Place half of the béchamel sauce on the bottom of a circular oven dish (or baking tin) with a diameter of 22 cm at the base and place the paccheri next to each other in concentric circles starting from the outer perimeter of the oven dish, thus filling it. Stuff the paccheri with the mushroom and sausage sauce that you have transferred to the sac-à-poche, sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese, then add the rest of the béchamel sauce and a few thyme leaves. Bake the filled paccheri in a preheated oven at 180° for about 25 minutes + 5 minutes of grilling to brown the surface. Take the paccheri ripieni con salsiccia e funghi out of the oven, let them rest and compact for 5-10 minutes and then serve them at the table!