Beef, Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni

You will need...
500gr regular beef mince
1 small brown onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tins chopped Italian tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
250gr ricotta cheese
250gr chopped frozen spinach (you can use fresh if you like), defrosted
1/2 cup grated parmesan
250gr fresh lasagna sheets (or dried cannelloni if you wish)
60gr butter
1/3 cup plain flour
2 cups milk
1 cup grated mozzarella
1/2 cup grated parmesan, extra
1 tsp dried oregano
salt & pepper
olive oil

Method...
1. For the sauce- Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large frypan and saute the onion and garlic on a medium-low heat until onion is transparent.Add tomato paste and tinned tomatoes, fill one tin with water, and add to the pan. Season with salt, pepper and oregano and cook for 35 minutes, uncovered at a gentle simmer.
Don't mind the mess!
2. For the bechamel- Melt the butter in a heavy based saucepan over a low heat, then add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for two minutes (called a ROUX). Microwave the milk to warm, then gradually whisk into the roux until smooth. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes until sauce thickens and gently bubbles. Remove from the heat and add salt and pepper to season.
3. Squeeze excess moisture out of the spinach and mix together with the beef, ricotta, parmesan and a little bit of salt and pepper. Cut lasagna sheets in half, spoon an even amount of mixture down the centre and roll up to create a canneloni. Line up rolled and filled cannelloni in a baking dish, greased with butter or olive oil.
4. Once all cannelloni are filled, spoon the sauce over the top. Then top with the bechamel and finish with a sprinkling of mozzarella and extra parmesan cheese.
Now we're getting somewhere!
5. Cover with foil and bake in a hot oven, 200 degrees celsius, for 1 hour. Remove foil and continue to cook for a further 20 minutes to help sauce thicken and brown the cheese.
Voila!! Golden Brown & Delicious!
N.B. For the Napoletana (tomato) sauce, I added fresh oregano, basil and a tomato vine from the garden, you don't have to do this, but it adds a bit of extra flavour.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vegetable Mornay

Image
This is a classic dish that can dress up the most boring vegetables. I personally think cheese or bacon (or sometimes both) can make any meal better! You will need... 1/2 a large head of cauliflower 1 head of broccoli 1 large carrot 2 washed potatoes (I used red delight) 1 cup of peas (fresh or frozen) For the sauce 75gr buttter 1/3 cup plain flour 3 cups whole milk salt & pepper & freshly grated nutmeg 1/2 cup cheddar cheese For the topping 1 cup cheddar cheese 1/4 cup breadcrumbs 2 tbs roughly chopped flat leaf parsley Method... 1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius, grease a large 3-4Lt capacity ceramic baking dish. 2. Peel the carrot and potato and dice into 1 inch pieces then transfer to a microwave safe bowl with a little water, cover with glad wrap and microwave for 1 minute on high to begin the cooking process. Drain and set aside. Wash the cauliflower and broccoli and trim into neat florets.  3. Melt the butte...
Read more

George Calombaris' Pasticcio (AKA Greek Lasagna)

Image
Ohhh pasticcio... This recipe gives me so many warm and fuzzies. My mum always used to make it for me when I was younger for special occasions like my birthday and Easter so I associate it with fun times and getting presents and all that good stuff. The one my mum made came from the old faithful Margaret Fulton Cookbook circa late sixties/early seventies... I'm not sure what my Italian mum was doing making Greek recipes written by an Australian cookbook guru but anyway... it must have been en-vogue when the book was written and I'm not complaining because it's delicious. Mum's pasticcio was put together 'lasagna-style' with layers of curly-edge lasagna sheets that would get all crispy and brown on the edges. She would layer the pasta sheets with the tomato and beef sauce and béchamel and then bake it, and it would usually take her a while to prepare. My New Favourite Cookbook! I like this recipe by George Calombaris because it still has all that wo...
Read more

Anna-Maria's Zucchini Slice

Image
This is Anna-Maria’s Zucchini Slice from Stephanie Alexander’s Cooks Companion …   I’ve tweaked it a little as I’m sure most people do, it’s one of those no-rules recipes where you can customise it as much or as little as you like. I love zucchini because it is such a versatile vegetable (although technically it’s an immature fruit- wiki will tell you it’s a swollen ovary of a zucchini flower… sounds appetising), you can put them in almost anything because they don’t have a very strong flavour, which is great when it comes to hiding veggies from your kids! I’ve even eaten a chocolate cake that had grated zucchini in it and it was one of the best chocolate cakes I’ve ever had- so moist (haha MOIST!) You will need… ¼ cup of olive oil (the recipe says half a cup but you really don’t need that much) 500g zucchini, grated 1 small carrot, grated 1 small onion, finely chopped 1 garlic clove, crushed 200gr smoked bacon, finely chopped 100g freshly grat...
Read more