Mezzemaniche stuffed au gratin on a bed of peppers

Preparation:

Preparation: For the filling, take a bowl and marinate the cooked ham, cut into strips, for about one to half an hour and mixed together with the minced meat, a pinch of paprika and 3 juniper berries. Boil the mezzemaniche in boiling salted water with the addition of a drop of oil. Drain the pasta al dente and cool it under running cold water. Take the peppers, clean them and cut them into small and regular cubes. Simply sauté the peppers in a pan with a drizzle of oil and a clove of garlic to leave them quite crunchy (for about 6-7 minutes); salt the peppers only at the end. Take the marinated meat and cooked ham, remove the juniper berries and blend them in a mixer, slowly adding the cream and correcting with a pinch of salt and pepper. For the béchamel, heat the milk in a saucepan and in the meantime prepare a roux in a separate saucepan by melting the butter and toasting the flour. - Pour the milk on the roux and let it thicken; correct with salt, pepper, nutmeg. Cut the taleggio into cubes and add it to the hot béchamel and mix so that it melts well. Take the peppers and place them on the bottom of a baking dish. Put the filling in a piping bag without a nozzle and fill the mezzemaniche one by one; arrange the pasta vertically in the oven dish, on the bed of peppers. Cover the pasta with the béchamel, sprinkle with the parmesan and put in the oven at 200 degrees for about 15 minutes. Note: paccheri or cannelloni can also be used instead of mezzemaniche; obviously the cooking times in the oven lengthen.