Cannelloni is a great pasta dish not seen on a lot of menus. Mainly because it is quite labour intensive to get right. So many I have had are really lasagna in disguise. Thats not what you want. It should have its own unique texture and flavour. Mostly I stick with Spinach and Ricotta as it is really tasty and a great vegetarian dish. But don't be afraid to do a meat (pork and beef with onions and cheese) or seafood (crab, camembert, shallots) or whatever filling. They all work.
I like to mix my fillings into a thick bechamel sauce as the flour holds the mixture together much better and the filling doesn't collapse when baked. If you use a glass baking dish you will get a three layer dish. If you use a larger steel baking dish you will get a two layer dish. Both are great.
Plan ahead. Do the spinach filling and pasta dough. Refrigerate. Make the cannelloni rolls and freeze a day or a month ahead. That's the hard part done.
Ingredients
400g Pasta Dough
80g Butter
75g Flour
400ml Milk
Salt
500g Ricotta cheese
500g frozen spinach
Sauce:
2 Tbs Olive oil
1 Onion
4 cloves Garlic
3 x 420g can peeled tomatoes
2 Tbs tomato Paste
1 Tbs Sugar
125 ml Lambrusco white wine
Thyme
Oregano
Marjoram
40g Parmesan Cheese
70g Mozarella Cheese
70g Cheddar cheese.
Method::
Defrost and squeeze all the moisture out of the spinach.
Make a thick sticky bechamel sauce using 80g butter and 75g flour and enough milk to form a very thick sauce. Cool 15 mins.
Add the spinach and ricotta to bechamel sauce. Season and mix till combined. Refrigerate.
Roll out the pasta dough on the thinnest setting in long strips. Measure the width of your baking tray and cut pieces just shorter than half this measurement. Say 110mm. Cut each of these pieces in half horizontally. You should have a piece say 110mm by 60mm.
Roll with a rolling pin to thin out more. Lay just less than 1Tbs of the cold spinach mixture along this piece and roll up. Do not overlap by more than 10mm. Trim off excess pasta. Dampen this edge to join. Put onto a tray with baking paper. Repeat (60 times). Freeze these rolls.
On the day:
To make the sauce finely chop the garlic and onion and cook for a minute or two in the oil. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar and wine and bring to a simmer. Season with salt and simmer 15 mins. Add basil and thyme. Blend till smooth. Cool.
Put some of the sauce on the bottom of a glass baking dish and set rows of rolls evenly spaced into the dish. Cover lightly with some of the sauce. Set a second layer of rolls sitting in the small gaps of the first layer. Cover with some of the sauce. Top with remaining rolls. Cover with sauce. Top with lots of grated parmesan, mozarella and cheddar cheese in lines over the middle of the rolls
Put on the middle shelf in the oven. Set another shelf just above the height of the cheese. Cover this shelf with foil. Bake for 30 minutes at 180° then remove the foil and bake uncovered for 10 mins. Turn the oven down to 110° and continue to cook at least 30 minutes more. Decant to seperate dishes and finish by grilling the top till it is just turning golden.
This is a great dish to refrigerate and microwave. Slice out a piece and microwave for 2 mins on Medium
I like to mix my fillings into a thick bechamel sauce as the flour holds the mixture together much better and the filling doesn't collapse when baked. If you use a glass baking dish you will get a three layer dish. If you use a larger steel baking dish you will get a two layer dish. Both are great.
Plan ahead. Do the spinach filling and pasta dough. Refrigerate. Make the cannelloni rolls and freeze a day or a month ahead. That's the hard part done.
Ingredients
400g Pasta Dough
80g Butter
75g Flour
400ml Milk
Salt
500g Ricotta cheese
500g frozen spinach
Sauce:
2 Tbs Olive oil
1 Onion
4 cloves Garlic
3 x 420g can peeled tomatoes
2 Tbs tomato Paste
1 Tbs Sugar
125 ml Lambrusco white wine
Thyme
Oregano
Marjoram
40g Parmesan Cheese
70g Mozarella Cheese
70g Cheddar cheese.
Method::
Defrost and squeeze all the moisture out of the spinach.
Make a thick sticky bechamel sauce using 80g butter and 75g flour and enough milk to form a very thick sauce. Cool 15 mins.
Add the spinach and ricotta to bechamel sauce. Season and mix till combined. Refrigerate.
Roll out the pasta dough on the thinnest setting in long strips. Measure the width of your baking tray and cut pieces just shorter than half this measurement. Say 110mm. Cut each of these pieces in half horizontally. You should have a piece say 110mm by 60mm.
Roll with a rolling pin to thin out more. Lay just less than 1Tbs of the cold spinach mixture along this piece and roll up. Do not overlap by more than 10mm. Trim off excess pasta. Dampen this edge to join. Put onto a tray with baking paper. Repeat (60 times). Freeze these rolls.
On the day:
To make the sauce finely chop the garlic and onion and cook for a minute or two in the oil. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar and wine and bring to a simmer. Season with salt and simmer 15 mins. Add basil and thyme. Blend till smooth. Cool.
Put some of the sauce on the bottom of a glass baking dish and set rows of rolls evenly spaced into the dish. Cover lightly with some of the sauce. Set a second layer of rolls sitting in the small gaps of the first layer. Cover with some of the sauce. Top with remaining rolls. Cover with sauce. Top with lots of grated parmesan, mozarella and cheddar cheese in lines over the middle of the rolls
Put on the middle shelf in the oven. Set another shelf just above the height of the cheese. Cover this shelf with foil. Bake for 30 minutes at 180° then remove the foil and bake uncovered for 10 mins. Turn the oven down to 110° and continue to cook at least 30 minutes more. Decant to seperate dishes and finish by grilling the top till it is just turning golden.
This is a great dish to refrigerate and microwave. Slice out a piece and microwave for 2 mins on Medium
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