italian suitcase: stuffed conchiglie bake

Googling for Massimo Camia, the Michelin starred head chef at La Locanda del Borgo Antico, MrM discovered his new culinary hero is self-taught. "Me too!" he claimed, and, as if to prove a point despite not being at all challenged, he embarked on a revision of one of his recipes. There are a few key differences between this version and the original. Here, we are using conchiglie, instead of paccheri (essentially because we couldn't get hold of them here in North London), and we use a béchamel (as in lasagne) to make sure the pasta does not dry out too much when cooking in the oven, as opposed to cooking everything in liquid cream

Ingredients for 4 people in normal circumstances, or 3 if they have just come back from a run on the Heath

300g dried conchiglie
75g pancetta, finely diced
300g ricotta
200g burrata (this is mozzarella with a cream filling. use buffalo mozzarella if you can't find it, or prefer a lighter version)
basil
salt
500 ml milk
30g of plain white flour
30g butter
grated parmesan
nutmeg
salt and pepper

Preparation:

Start with preparing the béchamel. Melt the butter in a pan and dissolve the flour in it. Pour the milk, and bring to the boil. Let it simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring continuously, until it has thickened to a creamy texture. Add salt and grated nutmeg to your taste.
Meanwhile (if you have 4 hands) par-boil the conchiglie - for a bit more than half of the cooking time as per packet instructions (our conchiglie were supposed to cook for 12 minutes, and we boiled them for 7). Drain them in a colander, splash with fresh water to stop the cooking process and dry them well.
Heat the oven at 180 degrees.
Fry the pancetta for 2 minutes (no need of adding oil), then mix it in a bowl with the ricotta, burrata, basil, salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Spread a third of the béchamel at the bottom of a deep oven dish. Fill the conchiglie with the pancetta and ricotta mix and place them in the dish, leaving their open parts on the top (to prevent the filling from melting out as they cook in the oven). Cover with the remaining béchamel and some grated parmesan on top.
Cook in the oven for 30 minutes, and serve with a nice red wine. For us, it had to be Nebbiolo, and we were lucky enough to have brought back from our Barolo trip a few bottles from Mario Marengo.
A great Nebbiolo d'Alba Valmaggiore 2011!