Out and about grocery shopping the other day I saw for a decent price fresh lasagne sheets, whole
grain ones from Olivieri - I thought 'why not?' I'll make lasagna, I am not a lasagna dynamo by any stretch, I'm actually really hit and miss with the lasagna craft (and most Italian style cooking to be honest), but whenever I use fresh sheets it's always tastier.
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| The finished product! |
out evenly and thinly enough, well, I almost may as well make my own dough but then something else came to me.
A light bulb - cannelloni - of course! I've read it in a chatelaine or canadianliving or something like that some time in the last 3 months to 3 years so I went researching and yes, infact, it's common practice to make cannelloni using lasagne sheets and it is FAN freaking tastic.
If you've made cannelloni or manicotti before you've tried to stuff those tube shells. Now, you could just pipe into the shells which is often good esp for cheese mixes, but if you have no suitable piping bags (ziploc will do in a pinch), or even warm filling the piping idea might not work out so well, which makes rolling your cannelloni a desirable option - and one I'll do over again for certain.
I sort of based it on this recipe, many of my methods/ingredients are the same: http://www.canadianliving.com/food/veal_and_spinach_cannelloni.php
VEAL RICOTTA CANNELLONI
serves 8 (or if you're hungry, a bit less :))
INGREDIENTS/TOOLS
The Filling:
- 1 small onion or 2 shallots, fine dice
- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 lb lean ground veal (use beef if you want)
- 4 oz white or cremeni mushrooms fine diced
- 1/4C white wine
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| Fill 'er up! Filling the pasta for rolling |
- 1/2C milk
- 3T tomato paste
- 1T fresh basil chopped fine
- 1T olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 3 oz or 1C shredded mozzarella
- 1C (or 300G tub) ricotta
- 1 egg (or 2 egg white)
- 1C shredded spinach (optional)
- 1/4C of fresh parsley (if you've got some on hand) otherwise a T of dried will work.
The Sheets:
- 1 360g pkg of lasagne sheets (9"x6" - 6 sheets total)
- a few damp tea towels
The sauce:
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 28oz can of whole plum tomatoes undrained
- 1 5oz can plain tomato paste (put a few T aside for the veal)
- 1/4C white wine
- salt and pepper to taste
- small handful of fresh basil, stems and all (a few sprigs)
- 1T olive oil
- Fresh parsley to garnish (if you've got it)
Other:
- 15x12 (or similar sized) roasting pan (alternately, use 2 8x8 or something like that)
- about a 1/2C grated fresh parmesan cheese
METHOD
The Meat:
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| Cooking the meat |
- Add the 1T of olive oil, the onion and garlic. Stir around for about 5 minutes until translucent.
- Add the meat, stirring around and breaking apart until cooked*
*tip - as the meat is cooking, I like to use a pastry blender to get the meat chopped fine.
- Add the mushrooms, wine, tomato paste, basil, milk, stir around and bring to a boil.
- Cover, turn the heat to medium-low, and let simmer for about a half hour, checking once in awhile making sure it's not drying out, using your pastry cutter to make it nice and evenly crumbled.
- Once the time is up, add the parsley, kill the heat and set aside to cool for about 10 minutes.
- Once the time is up, add the parsley, kill the heat and set aside to cool for about 10 minutes.
The Sauce:
- Heat large pot or medium saucepan to medium
- Add the 1T of olive oil, the onion and garlic. Stir around for about 5 minutes until translucent.
- Add the can of tomatoes, tomato paste, wine, basil
- Bring to a boil and then back down to medium low
- Simmer the mixture for about a half hour, uncovered, stirring occasionally, breaking apart tomatoes
- Add salt and pepper to taste
- Optionally (and I did this) Use an immersion blender (for a smooth sauce) to puree the mix.
- Set aside to cool
The noodles:
- In a large pot of salted boiling water add 2 lasagne sheets, cook for 2 minutes and remove to colander and place under cool water. Do the same for the other sheets.
- When all of the sheets are cooked and cooled cut each sheet into 4 rectangular pieces, each 4.5"x3"
- Place the noodles in a single layer on a damp tea towel (do not stack, they will stick), top with tea
towel and continue the layers until all of the noodles are cut up.
What about that cheese?:
- Put your ricotta, grated mozza, egg, spinach, into a large bowl, stir to combine and refrigerate until ready to use.
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| Panning it up! |
- Add your cooled veal mix to the cheese/spinach mix, stir well - this is your filling!
- In your large roasting pan, spread out about 3/4 C of sauce (so there's a nice thin layer covering)
- On a work surface or large cutting board, get a few of your lasagne noodle pieces
- Take a nice scoopful (about 2T or so) of the cannelloni mix and place on the short side of the noodle, almost center (see photo)
- roll up noodle around filling, place in roasting pan seam side down
- Finish all noodles in roasting pan, Add all of the remaining tomato sauce over the cannelloni and ensure even coverage
- Sprinkle the top with the parmesan cheese
Bake it:
- Bake covered with foil in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes, uncovering for the last 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let stand 5-10 minutes before serving
- Serve with extra parmesan if you wish
- 1 serving = 3 cannelloni
- Goes great with a salad and garlic toast
If I made it again:
- Easy on the salt in the tomato sauce
- More basil in the tomato sauce, maybe some fresh oregano as well
- Use more meat and/or more ricotta in the filling (not that you really NEED it more full but it would round out better)
- Use more spinach (I would have if we had more)
The verdict:
I really liked this, so did Adam. The work was good for a Sunday, but you couldn't swing this on an average weeknight. Makes enough for several hungry people, we are still working on the delicious leftovers. It's a keeper. I'll definitely make cannelloni this way probably forever...and ever. :)
I really liked this, so did Adam. The work was good for a Sunday, but you couldn't swing this on an average weeknight. Makes enough for several hungry people, we are still working on the delicious leftovers. It's a keeper. I'll definitely make cannelloni this way probably forever...and ever. :)
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