Coquillettes with cheese: Norbert Tarayre shares his easy and gourmet recipe to delight young and old

For weeknights when you lack inspiration, the very popular chef Norbert Tarayre shares a very simple idea for a comforting meal based on pasta au gratin to please young and old alike.

After its ultra-flowing express cordon bleu and its regressive Nutella dessert, the Chef Norbert Tarayre returns with a new video on his Youtube page (@LeLoftdeNorbert). He shares the recipe of another dish from our childhood : the famous ham cheese shells ! Ideal to remedy the lack of inspiration at dinner time, this pasta dish is reinvented in a cheese version generous to say the least. A family recipe that the self-taught chef embellishes with a preparation of which he has the secret for creamy shells.

Pasta dish: the easy recipe for shells from Norbert Tarayre

Undisputed star of the dishes of our childhoodthe trio ham and cheese shell is revisited by the very popular Norbert Tarayreespecially known for his humor and his generosity on the plate. In his recipe, he replaces the cream with… béchamel. Result ? A dish of pasta also creamy that tasty !

Ingredients for 2 to 3 people:

• 300g shells
• 50g butter (for the béchamel)
• 50g flour
• 500ml milk
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 100 g grated Emmental cheese
• 30 g butter (for the whipped butter)
• 2 slices of ham
• 1 bunch of chervil

Preparation :

1. For perfectly cooked pasta, bring to the boil a large volume of salt water (about 1 liter for 100 g of pasta). Add to it shells and stir to separate the pasta between them. Once the shells are cooked, stop cooking by rinsing them with cold water and set them aside. (Also discover this revolutionary technique for cooking pasta while limiting your energy consumption!)
2. For the bechamel sauce, make a roux in a saucepan from melted butter and of flour. Pour Milk in two to three times on the roux, stirring well with a whisk. Bring to a boil and whisk until the mixture thickens. At the end of cooking, add the ground nutmeg and the grated cheese.
3. Make whipped butter by melting 30 g of butter in a little water until you obtain a frothy mixture. Add the pasta shells to warm them up as well as bechamel sauce which replaces the fresh cream here.
4. Arrange the shells in a deep plate by depositing a spoonful of Bechamel on top. Bake at 200°C until the pasta is lightly browned.
5. To decorate your dish with shellsprepare a cheese tile in a jiffy by depositing a thin layer ofgrated cheese in a hot skillet. Remove it once it is dry and golden brown.
6. For dressing, sprinkle with diced ham and the chopped chervil on the pasta shells and arrange finally the cheese tile detailed in pieces on top.