Tallarines bontú are long noodles coated in a white sauce enriched with cream, ham and mushrooms, then topped with cheese and baked until golden. The dish takes about 1 hour and 5 minutes and serves 4.
Few pasta dishes are as familiar in Chile, where tallarines bontú appear on workplace cafeteria menus, packed lunches and weekend family meals. The name is spelled several ways, bontú, bontu or bontoux, and all of them mean the same dish. Its base is a white sauce made like a béchamel, thickened with butter, flour and milk, and it is served hot from the oven with a green salad or a Chilean tomato and onion salad.
How to Make Baked Pasta with Ham and Mushrooms?
The recipe comes together in three stages. The noodles are cooked a couple of minutes less than the package says, because they finish cooking in the oven. The sauce is thickened with a roux of butter and flour, and at the end everything is baked at 200°C (392°F) until the cheese is golden.
Nutritional Information
Each serving of tallarines bontú (one 500 g / 17.5 oz serving) contains approximately 900 kcal, 38 g of protein, 42 g of total fat (25 g of saturated fat), 145 mg of cholesterol, 85 g of carbohydrates, 9 g of sugars and 1,000 mg of sodium. These values are estimates and may vary depending on ingredients and portion sizes.
Homemade Baked Pasta with Ham and Mushrooms Recipe
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 50 minutes
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 400 g (14 oz) tallarines (long flat pasta such as fettuccine)
- 30 g (2 tablespoons) butter, plus a little for greasing the baking dish
- 200 g (7 oz) fresh mushrooms, sliced
- 200 g (7 oz) cooked ham, cut into strips
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (20 g)
- 400 ml (1⅔ cups) whole milk
- 200 ml (generous ¾ cup) heavy cream
- 150 g (5 oz) grated mantecoso cheese (a soft, buttery Chilean melting cheese)
- 40 g (1½ oz) grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 pinch ground nutmeg
- Fine salt
- Black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (392°F) and butter a baking dish of about 30 x 20 cm (12 x 8 inches). Bring 4 liters (about 4 quarts) of salted water to a boil in a large pot and cook the noodles for 2 minutes less than the package says, so they stay firm in the center. Drain and set aside.
- Melt the butter in a medium pot over medium-high heat. Add the sliced mushrooms and sauté them for 5 minutes, until they release their liquid and start to brown. Add the ham strips and cook for 2 minutes more, stirring, so the ham takes on a little color without drying out.
- Sprinkle the flour over the ham and mushrooms and stir for 1 minute over medium heat to cook it. Pour in the milk gradually, stirring constantly to prevent lumps, and cook over low heat for 5 minutes until it thickens. Add the cream, nutmeg, salt and pepper, and stir in half of the mantecoso cheese.
- Toss the noodles with the bontoux sauce in the same pot until they are well coated, then transfer them to the buttered baking dish. Scatter the rest of the mantecoso cheese and the grated Parmesan over the top. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes on the upper rack of the oven, until the cheese is golden and bubbling. Let it rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Additional Tips
Why Cook the Pasta for Less Time?
The noodles keep absorbing liquid while they sit in the sauce and later in the oven. If you cook them for the full time on the package, they come out of the dish soft and the sauce dries out, because the pasta soaks it up. Taking them off the heat 2 minutes early leaves them firm in the center, and they finish cooking during the 15 to 20 minutes in the oven without going too far.
How to Get a Lump-Free Sauce
The secret is to cook the flour with the butter for a minute before adding any liquid, and to pour in the milk gradually. If the milk is warm, the sauce comes together faster. If lumps still appear, whisk it off the heat for a few seconds. It is the same technique as the white sauce for lasagna and cannelloni, so if you already know it, this step holds no surprises.
A Quick Stovetop Version
If you do not have an oven, you can serve tallarines bontú straight from the pot. Toss the pasta with the sauce, add all of the mantecoso cheese so it melts, and sprinkle the Parmesan on top when serving. You lose the golden crust, but the dish stays creamy and is ready sooner. Along the same lines, a ready-made creamy mushroom sauce works as a quick base if you add the ham and the cheese.
These swaps let you make the dish with what you have in the pantry without losing its character.
| Ingredient | Classic version | Alternative |
|---|---|---|
| Pasta | Tallarines | Fettuccine, ribbon noodles or bow-tie pasta |
| Ham | Cooked pork ham | Turkey ham or shredded cooked chicken breast |
| Mushrooms | Fresh sliced mushrooms | Canned mushrooms, well drained |
| Topping cheese | Mantecoso and Parmesan | Gouda or mozzarella |
| Dairy | Whole milk and cream | Whole milk only, with 3 tablespoons of flour instead of 2 |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What Is Bontoux Sauce?
It is a béchamel-style white sauce enriched with cream, ham and mushrooms, which in Chile is used mostly for tallarines bontú. It is thickened with butter, flour and milk and is usually finished with grated cheese. Some homemade versions add sautéed onion or bell pepper.
2. Is It Spelled Bontú, Bontu or Bontoux?
All three spellings appear in cookbooks, cafeteria menus and restaurant menus in Chile, and they refer to the same dish. Bontoux is the French-looking spelling, while bontú and bontu reflect how the word is pronounced in Chile. There is no clear, documented record of which form came first.
3. Can You Make Tallarines Bontú Ahead of Time?
Yes. Assemble the whole dish up to the point of baking, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for up to 24 hours. Before baking, add a splash of milk around the edges, because the pasta absorbs some of the sauce in the refrigerator, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 200°C (392°F), since it goes into the oven cold.
4. Which Cheese Is Best for Topping the Pasta?
Mantecoso cheese melts well and gives a creamy layer, while Parmesan adds a golden crust and a saltier flavor. Gouda or mozzarella are good alternatives. Avoid fresh or very moist cheeses, because they release water and do not brown.
What Is Baked Pasta with Ham and Mushrooms?
Tallarines bontú are a Chilean baked pasta dish of long noodles tossed in bontoux sauce, a béchamel made with butter, flour and whole milk and enriched with cream, cooked ham, sautéed mushrooms, nutmeg and mantecoso cheese. The pasta is topped with more mantecoso and Parmesan and baked at 200°C (392°F) until golden and bubbling. It is a staple of Chilean home cooking and workplace cafeteria menus.
History of Baked Pasta with Ham and Mushrooms in Chile
Tallarines bontú are a dish of Chilean home cooking and cafeteria menus, very common at workplaces, schools and family lunches. The name is spelled several ways and there is no confirmed record of its origin or of who named it.
The technique, on the other hand, is well known. The sauce starts from a béchamel, one of the foundations of French cooking, to which very common Chilean pantry ingredients are added, such as cooked ham, mushrooms and mantecoso cheese.
Did You Know?
Béchamel, the base of tallarines bontú, is one of the five mother sauces of classic French cooking, a classification popularized by the chef Auguste Escoffier in the early twentieth century. Mornay sauce, which contains cheese, comes from it, as do many of the sauces used in homemade gratins.
How to adapt this recipe to a vegan or vegetarian version?
How to adapt this recipe to a gluten-free version?
How to adapt this recipe to a keto (ketogenic) version?
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