Noodle Nests

Total Time: 50 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients

• 1 cup pasta, small variety, cooked (i.e. ditalini)
• 1/3 cup ham, diced (or other meat)
• 1/3 cup swiss cheese, diced (or other cheese)
• 1/3 cup onion, diced
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup heavy cream (half & half works too)
• 1/2 cup milk (i use skim without a problem)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 pinch nutmeg

Recipe

• 1 preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• 2 spray, butter, or in some way lubricate your mini-muffin (or reg muffin pans) well, otherwise there is a good chance you will be digging these out of the pan (even silicon pans need a good oiling) and end up with a delicious mountain of destroyed nests. and muffin liners (even the foil ones) don't work well either, trust me.
• 3 cook pasta (or use left overs).
• 4 chop meat, cheese and onion; mix together with pasta.
• 5 in a large measuring cup (2 cup works well), beat eggs slightly, stir in cream, milk, salt, pepper and nutmeg.
• 6 evenly distribute the dry mixture among the mini-muffin pans, then evenly pour custard mixture into each muffin cup. there will be left over - there always is. these puff up, so you don't necessarily want to take the liquids all the way up to the top.
• 7 bake for 35 minutes.
• 8 remove from oven, run a knife around the edge of each nest to loosen from the sides of the muffin cups. let cool 5-10 min before removing.
• 9 these are best warm, but usually consumed piping hot - be warned!
• 10 check description for flavor substitutes and make ahead instructions.