Italian Baked Crepes with Chicken, Prosciutto and Fontina | Crespelle Gratinate al Pollo, Prosciutto e Fontina
Updated: Oct 24
This is the quiet one in the family of baked crespelle, and the hardest to judge. Diced chicken thigh, cooked fast and stopped early, is folded with chopped prosciutto cotto and small cubes of Fontina, wrapped in a crepe and gratinated until the corners darken. There is no braise to build depth here: everything depends on cooking the poultry correctly and then refusing to add anything else.
The crepe here is made deliberately thinner than for the meatier versions. The batter carries extra milk, the pan gets barely any butter, and each disc is swirled to the rim of the skillet so it comes out almost translucent. A filling this delicate cannot carry a substantial wrapper: the crespella has to disappear around it.
The other discipline is salt. Prosciutto cotto and Fontina between them bring most of the seasoning the dish needs, and both arrive after the chicken is cooked. Season lightly, taste the assembled filling cold, and adjust once at the end.
Yield: 4 servings, 8 to 12 crespelle. Prep: 40 minutes. Cook: 30 minutes. Baking: 25 minutes. Rest: 8 minutes. Difficulty: intermediate. Course: primo piatto. Region: Valle d'Aosta and Piedmont.
The Story
Fontina is the reason this combination exists. It is made in the Valle d'Aosta from the raw whole milk of a single milking of Valdostana cows and matured at least three months in cold humid rock cellars, and it melts as almost no other Italian cheese does: smoothly, without separating into oil and rubber, which is why it is the base of fonduta valdostana.
Prosciutto cotto belongs to a more recent tradition. Cooked ham became a staple of northern Italian kitchens after the war, when it was cheap, reliably mild and available everywhere, and it went into everything children were expected to eat. Its role here is unglamorous: not its own flavour, but seasoning the chicken from inside with something sweeter and rounder than salt.
The pairing travelled through the classic Valdostana formula, where a cutlet of veal or chicken is topped with ham and Fontina and finished under heat. The crespella version turns that inside out, dicing all three elements and wrapping them instead of layering them. It is home cooking from the alpine end of Italy, where dairy and cured pork are what the valley produces.
Ingredients
For the crespelle
All purpose flour, 1 cup (125 g)
Large eggs, 2
Whole milk, 1 1/3 cups (320 ml)
Unsalted butter, melted, 1 1/2 tbsp (21 g)
Fine sea salt, 1/4 tsp (1.5 g)
Unsalted butter for the pan, about 1 tbsp (14 g)
For the filling
Boneless skinless chicken thighs, in 1/3 inch dice, 1 lb (450 g)
Prosciutto cotto in one thick slice, finely chopped, 4 oz (115 g)
Shallot, small, finely chopped, 1
Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Dry white wine, 1/2 cup (120 ml)
Fontina Valle d'Aosta DOP, in 1/4 inch dice, 6 oz (170 g)
Parmigiano Reggiano, grated, 1/2 cup (50 g)
Fine sea salt, 1/4 tsp (1.5 g), and freshly ground white pepper
For the bechamel
Unsalted butter, 3 tbsp (42 g)
All purpose flour, 3 tbsp (24 g)
Whole milk, 2 1/2 cups (600 ml)
Fine sea salt, 1/2 tsp (3 g)
Freshly grated nutmeg, 1 small pinch
For finishing
Parmigiano Reggiano, grated, 3/4 cup (75 g)
Fontina, in small dice, 2 oz (55 g)
Unsalted butter for the dish and the surface, 2 tbsp (28 g)
Preparation
Making a thinner batter
Whisk the eggs with the salt, add a third of the milk, whisk in the flour until smooth and thin it with the remaining milk and the melted butter. This batter carries more liquid and less fat than a standard crespelle mix, which is what gives the fine wrapper this filling needs. Rest it 20 to 30 minutes.
Cooking the crespelle pale
Wipe an 8 inch nonstick skillet with the barest film of butter over medium heat. Use a scant ladle, swirl at once so the batter reaches the rim, and pour any excess back. Cook 40 to 50 seconds on the first side and no more than 15 on the second. They should lift off ivory coloured.
Searing the chicken thigh
Heat the olive oil in a wide skillet over medium high heat and soften the shallot 2 minutes without colour. Add the diced thigh in a single uncrowded layer and leave it untouched 90 seconds before stirring. Cook 4 to 5 minutes, until the outside is lightly golden and the centre only just opaque. Season with the 1/4 teaspoon of salt and white pepper.
Deglazing and reducing the wine
Pour in the white wine and let it bubble down until the pan is almost dry and only a glossy film remains, 3 to 4 minutes over fairly high heat. Any wine left as free liquid reappears inside the folded crespelle as steam. Take the pan off while the chicken is still slightly underdone.
Folding in the ham and cheese
Let the chicken cool in the pan 15 minutes, until no warmer than your hand. Fold in the chopped prosciutto cotto, half the Parmigiano and two thirds of the diced Fontina. Adding the ham off the heat keeps it soft and stops its salt concentrating. Taste the filling cold, and only then decide whether it needs anything.
Making a fluid bechamel
Melt the butter over medium low heat, whisk in the flour and cook the roux 90 seconds without colour. Add the milk in three stages, whisking each smooth, then simmer 5 to 7 minutes until it just coats a spoon. Season with salt and nutmeg and keep it noticeably fluid: this sauce lubricates a delicate filling, it does not thicken it.
Filling and folding
Place about 2 tablespoons of the cooled filling slightly off centre on each crespella, add a few extra cubes of Fontina and 1 teaspoon of bechamel, then fold twice into a neat triangle. Keep the portions restrained: an overfilled crespella splits at the fold and the cheese escapes into the dish.
Arranging the dish
Butter a shallow baking dish and spread the thinnest possible film of bechamel over the base. Lay the triangles in overlapping rows with the top corner of each left uncovered, spoon the remaining bechamel lightly between them rather than over them, and finish with the last Fontina, the remaining Parmigiano and small dots of butter.
Baking and gratinating
Bake at 375°F (190°C) for 20 to 25 minutes, until the sauce bubbles gently at the edges and the cheese has melted through. Raise the oven to 425°F (220°C) for a final 2 to 3 minutes, watching closely, until the corners turn golden and the Parmigiano blisters. Stop at colour rather than at time.
Resting before service
Rest the dish 8 minutes on the counter. The chicken keeps firming as it comes down from oven temperature, and the pause lets the bechamel set enough to hold a cut edge. Lift the triangles with a wide spatula slid fully under the base.
Plating
Use warm plates at around 130°F (55°C). Fontina sets faster than most Italian cheeses as it cools, moving from flowing to firm across a narrow band of temperature, and a cold plate takes the dish through that band before the second forkful. Two or three triangles make a primo. Lay them in a shallow overlapping fan rather than a stack, darkened corners facing up and outwards, with a wide margin of empty plate around them. This filling is pale and the dish has only one strong visual note, which is the browned edge, so the plating exists to display it.
Add nothing but a spoonful of the sauce from the side of the baking dish, drawn along one edge of the plate. No herbs, no pepper mill at the table, no oil. White pepper was used in the filling precisely so the interior stays clean and uniform when cut, and scattering black pepper over the top undoes that decision for no gain.
Professional Technique
The governing technique is cooking the chicken to about eighty per cent and trusting the oven for the rest. Thigh meat holds around seventy per cent water and every degree past done squeezes some of it out, and a filling that was perfect in the skillet still faces twenty five minutes at 375°F (190°C). Pulling the pan off while the dice are only just opaque means the chicken arrives cooked once rather than twice.
Second, the ham goes in cold and the cheese is diced rather than grated. Prosciutto cotto sautéed alongside the chicken loses moisture, tightens and concentrates its cure until it tastes harsh; added off the heat it stays supple and releases its sweetness gradually in the oven. Fontina in 1/4 inch cubes melts into pockets you find while eating, whereas grated Fontina disperses completely and simply makes everything richer without being identifiable.
Third, seasoning is deferred to the cold filling. Salt perception falls as temperature rises, so a hot filling tasted from the pan reads underseasoned and invites a correction that proves to be a mistake once the prosciutto and two salted cheeses have gone in. Tasting it cooled gives an honest reading, and the answer is usually that it needs nothing.
Texture and Moisture Control
The wine has to go almost completely, and this is the moisture decision that matters most. White wine reduced only by half leaves free liquid clinging to the chicken, and sealed inside a folded crespella it turns to steam in the oven and softens the wrapper from the inside out. Reduce until dragging a spoon across the base leaves a clean track that fills slowly rather than instantly.
The wrapper is thinner here than in the meat versions, which buys delicacy at the cost of tolerance. There is less starch between filling and sauce, so the bechamel must be fluid and scarce: a thin film beneath, a light spooning between the triangles, bare corners on top. A crespella fully coated in sauce steams rather than browns, and a steamed thin wrapper has no structure left when the spatula arrives.
Fontina behaves differently from Asiago or mozzarella under heat. Its high fat and moisture make it flow readily, but pushed too hot for too long it separates and releases oil that pools on the surface and dulls the gratin. This is why the high heat stage lasts two or three minutes rather than five, and why the dish is watched rather than timed at the end.
Professional Mise en Place
Nothing here takes long, but three of the four components must be cool or cold at the moment of assembly, so the order of work matters more than the timing.
Equipment and tools
8 inch nonstick or well seasoned crepe skillet and a small ladle
Wide heavy skillet with enough surface to sear without crowding
Heavy saucepan and a balloon whisk for the bechamel
Shallow baking dish, about 9 by 13 inches (23 by 33 cm)
Wide offset spatula and a measured tablespoon for portioning
Prepared ahead
Crespelle, cooked and stacked with parchment, up to 2 days refrigerated
Chicken filling with the ham and cheese folded in, up to 1 day refrigerated
Bechamel, up to 1 day refrigerated with plastic pressed on the surface
Fontina and Parmigiano cut and grated on the day of assembly
Shallot chopped and the wine measured before the skillet goes on the heat
Service setup
Filling cold and tasted at eating temperature before portioning
Bechamel warm and pourable, loosened with milk if it has set
Dish assembled and held cold, out 30 minutes before baking
Oven rack in the upper third so the corners colour without overcooking the base
Plates warming and an 8 minute rest timer ready
Chef Tips
Ask the deli counter for prosciutto cotto in a single slice about 1/4 inch thick rather than the usual paper sheets. Thin slices chop into shreds that dissolve into the filling; a thick slice dices cleanly and keeps a soft bite you can still find after baking.
Use thigh and never breast. Breast is close to dry at the point it is cooked through, and this filling faces a second cooking of twenty five minutes. Thigh carries enough fat and connective tissue to survive it, and stands better beside the ham and the Fontina.
Check that the Fontina is the real Valle d'Aosta DOP, with the Matterhorn stamped on the rind. Danish and Swedish cheeses sold as fontina are different products, firmer and waxier, and they melt into strings instead of flowing. Fontal, the Italian industrial cousin, is the acceptable substitute.
If the filling tastes flat when cold, reach for acidity before salt. A teaspoon of white wine held back from the deglazing lifts a mild chicken and ham mixture far more effectively than more seasoning, and does not compound the salt arriving from two cheeses.
Common Mistakes
Cooking the chicken through in the skillet. It faces another twenty five minutes in a hot oven, and meat cooked twice arrives dry and stringy however good the sauce is. Stop while the dice are barely opaque and let the oven finish the job.
Frying the prosciutto cotto with the chicken. Heat drives moisture out of cooked ham and concentrates its cure, so what should be sweet and mild turns hard and aggressively salty. Fold it into the cooled chicken off the heat, where it stays soft and seasons gently.
Salting the filling before the cheese goes in. Prosciutto cotto, Fontina and Parmigiano together carry most of the salt this dish needs. Season the chicken lightly in the pan, then taste the complete filling cold, which is the only reading that reflects how it will eat.
Grating the Fontina instead of dicing it. Grated Fontina stirred into a warm filling disappears into it entirely, leaving a uniformly rich mass with nothing to find. Small cubes melt into separate pockets and keep the three components distinguishable.
Holding the gratin at high heat too long. Fontina separates when it is pushed, releasing oil that pools on the surface and flattens the flavour. Two or three minutes at 425°F (220°C) is the whole of it, watched rather than timed.
Wine Pairing
Collio Friulano DOC: Friulano from the Collio hills is textured rather than merely crisp, with a waxy weight on the palate and a signature bitter almond finish. That combination suits cooked ham unusually well: the weight matches a creamy filling while the bitterness resets the palate against the sweetness of prosciutto cotto.
Soave Superiore DOCG: Garganega grown on the volcanic slopes above Soave gives white peach and a distinctly saline, chalky finish. The Superiore has more concentration and longer minerality than the basic bottling, which is what lets it cope with bechamel, and it stays delicate enough not to overrun chicken.
Roero Arneis DOCG: Arneis from the sandy Roero hills across the Tanaro from Barolo is aromatic in a restrained way, showing pear, chamomile and a faint hazelnut note over a soft, rounded body. That softness suits a mild filling that anything sharper would bully, and the nutty finish runs alongside the Parmigiano on the surface.
Lugana DOC: Made from Turbiana on the clay flats at the southern end of Lake Garda, Lugana combines citrus freshness with a broad, slightly oily texture rare in an Italian white. The texture is the point: it echoes the melted cheese rather than fighting it, while the lemon and almond backbone keeps a pale rich dish from feeling heavy.
Alto Adige DOC Pinot Nero: The red option, light and served cool at around 57°F (14°C). Alpine Pinot Nero from the hills around Egna has red cherry fruit, pronounced acidity and tannins fine enough to leave dairy alone. It picks up the roasted note of the gratin and comes from the same mountains as the Fontina.
Storage & Reheating
Hold this dish assembled and unbaked whenever you can. Covered tightly it keeps 24 hours refrigerated; bring it to room temperature for 30 minutes and add about 5 minutes to the baking time. It can also be assembled and frozen up to 1 month, open frozen until firm and then double wrapped, and thawed overnight in the refrigerator before baking as normal.
Once baked, leftovers keep 3 days in an airtight container. Reheat covered with foil at 325°F (165°C) for 15 minutes, then uncover for 5 more so the surface regains colour, and pull the dish as soon as the centre is hot, since a poultry filling reheats less forgivingly than a braise. Do not freeze the baked dish: Fontina and bechamel both break on thawing. Components keep separately for 1 day, the crespelle for 2 days refrigerated or 1 month frozen.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 4 servings of two to three crespelle each:
Calories: 690 kcal
Total Fat: 40 g
Saturated Fat: 22 g
Trans Fat: 0.8 g
Unsaturated Fat: 16 g
Cholesterol: 250 mg
Sodium: 1190 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 42 g
Fiber: 2 g
Total Sugars: 11 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 40 g
Lactose: 10 g
Principal micronutrients: calcium, phosphorus, selenium, zinc, vitamin B12, niacin, vitamin A, riboflavin
These figures are estimates. Sodium varies most of all, since prosciutto cotto, Fontina and Parmigiano differ widely between producers.
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