Easy Italian Baked Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni
Italy has a well-deserved reputation for its food, which is based on a concept of using fresh, wholesome, local and seasonal produce whenever possible. Italians often joke about spending all morning shopping and all afternoon cooking, to spend all evening eating. Whether this is true or not doesn’t detract from the importance of mealtimes for Italian families.
A good pasta dish is an almost essential element of any Italian menu and baked dishes are popular because of the added element of sharing they bring. Cannelloni is a popular dish made with thick pasta tubes stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese and cooked on a bed of rich tomato sauce and topped with béchamel sauce. It sounds fiddly but is actually surprisingly simple to make if you know a few secret short cuts.
For the cannelloni stuffing:
- Cannelloni tubes
- 400 grams fresh spinach
- 500 grams ricotta cheese
- 50 grams grated parmesan cheese
- Grated nutmeg
- Salt and pepper to season
For the sauces:
- One quantity of the best tomato sauce for pasta
- One pint of easy béchamel sauce
Method
- Prepare the easy tomato sauce according to the instructions and set it aside.
- Rinse the fresh spinach in cold water then in a large saucepan wilt it for about 4 to 5 minutes over a medium heat. If the spinach is in a sealed plastic bag you can steam it in the microwave by piercing the bag a few times and cooking on full power for about 4 minutes.
- Let the spinach drain for a few minutes in a colander before turning it out onto a large board and chopping it thoroughly.
- Place the chopped spinach in a large mixing bowl and season with fresh nutmeg and salt and pepper. Add the grated parmesan and 500 grams of ricotta and mix everything together roughly with a fork.
- Grease a large lasagne dish and pour in the tomato sauce over the bottom. Shake it gently from side to side to get the tomato base nice and even before putting the filled cannelloni tubes in.
- Top tip: fill a piping bag with the spinach and ricotta mixture and you’ll fill each tube quickly and with minimum fuss and mess. If you don’t have piping bag, you can fashion one with some greaseproof paper twisted into a cone with the tip snipped off.
- Lay the cannelloni tubes neatly in the prepared lasagne tray.
- When you can’t fit any more tubes in its time to make your easy, all-in-one béchamel sauce. When it is ready pour this over your tubes – make sure you cover them all or the pasta won’t cook properly in the oven.
- Put the lasagne dish on a baking tray in case it bubbles over and pop it in to the oven for 30 minutes at 180 degrees celsius or gas mark 7.
- Serve with a delicious green salad and more freshly grated parmesan.
Buon appetito.
Alasdair Smith - Scottish-based education, travel, family-history and food writer with a passion for all things French and Italian.
