Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Nido di Rondine
San Marino's "swallow's nest": pasta rolls filled with ham and cheese, sliced, and baked in tomato and béchamel.
Sammarinese · advanced · serves 6
prep 45 min · cook 45 min
~831 cal · 44g protein · 69g carbs · 42g fat · 4g fiber · 9g sugars · 24g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Nido di rondine, "swallow's nest", is the signature baked pasta of San Marino, the tiny landlocked republic that claims to be the world's oldest surviving sovereign state. It is festive, labour-intensive food, the kind of dish brought out for Sundays and celebrations in a place proud of its distinct identity.
It is built like a savoury roulade. Sheets of fresh egg pasta are spread with ham and cheese, rolled up tightly, and sliced across into pinwheels that, stood on end in the baking dish, look like a cluster of little nests. Packed together and blanketed in tomato sauce and creamy bechamel, they are baked until the tops turn bubbling and golden.
The result is somewhere between lasagne and cannelloni, rich and comforting, with the ham and cheese spiralled through every slice. For a country of only a few square miles, nido di rondine is a distinctive centrepiece to call its own.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally nut-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
1 lb fresh egg pasta sheets
8 oz prosciutto cotto (baked cooked ham), thinly sliced
2 cups fontina (or Emmental) and Parmigiano Reggiano
4 tbsp butter (for béchamel)
4 tbsp flour (for béchamel)
2 cups milk (for béchamel)
2 cups tomato passata
Instructions
1
Blanch the fresh pasta sheets briefly and lay them out flat.
2
Spread each sheet with bechamel, then the ham (or mushrooms) and a generous handful of cheese, roll it up along the short side, and cut each roll into four thick pinwheels.
✎ Chef’s note
Bechamel goes on the sheet as well as into the dish; it is the glue that holds the spiral together. Roll snugly along the short side and cut with a sharp knife so the nests keep their shape when stood up.
3
Make a bechamel, then spread a little of it with some passata over the base of a baking dish.
4
Stand the pinwheels upright in the dish packed tight against each other with no gaps, spoon over the rest of the bechamel and top with more Parmigiano.
✎ Chef’s note
Pack them in so they hold each other up. Any that topple sink into the sauce and you lose the crisp browned spiral on top, which is the whole point of the dish and the thing that makes it better than lasagne: everyone gets a share of the crunch.
5
Bake covered at 375F (190C) for about 30 minutes, then uncover and give it a few minutes more, or a moment under the broiler, to crisp the tops.
✎ Chef’s note
The Sammarinese classic is white: bechamel, prosciutto cotto and cheese, with no tomato at all. Passata is a common household variation, as are mushrooms or spinach, and the dish is loose enough to take any of them.
City of San Marino tradition.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
City of San Marino. The Sammarinese piadina is its own thing, thicker than the Rimini version, made with flour, water, lard and salt and cooked on a terracotta testo. Torta tre monti, layers of crisp wafer with cocoa and hazelnut cream under dark chocolate, is named for the three peaks of Monte Titano and dates from after the Second World War.
🗺️
San Marino. Torta Tre Monti is a post-war invention rather than an old recipe: layers of crisp wafer with cocoa and hazelnut cream, coated in dark chocolate, shaped in three rises for the three peaks of Monte Titano. The mountain and the historic centre on it are a UNESCO World Heritage site, listed for seven hundred years of continuous republican government.
🌍
Europe. European cooking is built on the land and the seasons, wheat, butter, and cured pork in the north; olive oil, tomatoes, and seafood around the Mediterranean; preserved vegetables and hearty stews through long winters. Centuries of peasant tradition, guild craft, and royal courts refined techniques from French mother sauces to Italian fresh pasta and Central European baking. Regional identity runs remarkably deep, with a single dish often changing from one valley to the next.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from San Marino
PiadinaA thin griddled flatbread folded around soft cheese with ham, or with jam, the daily bread of the region.
Cappelletti in BrodoLittle hat-shaped filled pasta floating in a clear, rich broth, the festive first course of San Marino.
Torta Tre MontiCrisp wafer layers stacked with chocolate-hazelnut cream and glazed, the emblematic cake of San Marino's three towers.
Browse all San Marino recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Rolling pin.
Storing it: Best fresh. Leftovers keep 2 days refrigerated; loosen with a splash of water or oil as you reheat so they do not clump.
Make it a San Marino meal
BustrengoDessert
Cappelletti in BrodoLunch
Similar dishes from around the world
Fettuccine alla PapalinaVatican City
Zhajiangmian (Fried Sauce Noodles)China
Sapasui (Samoan Chop Suey)Samoa
Bún ChảVietnam
Timpana (Baked Macaroni Pie)Malta
Tagliatelle al RagùItaly
Frequently asked questions
What is Nido di Rondine?
San Marino's "swallow's nest": pasta rolls filled with ham and cheese, sliced, and baked in tomato and béchamel.
Where does Nido di Rondine come from?
Nido di Rondine is a Sammarinese dish from City of San Marino, San Marino.
Can Nido di Rondine be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Nido di Rondine recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Nido di Rondine safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Nido di Rondine take to make?
About 90 minutes total (45 minutes prep, 45 minutes cooking), serving 6.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.