Cannelloni

Traditional cannelloni is not a vegetarian dish however when we make this we almost always make both vegetarian and the more traditional non-vegetarian version.



Cannelloni

1 box of cannelloni tubes (the one we used had 16 cannelloni tubes and weighed 250g/9OZ). Seves 4-6.
Make meat filling first if doing both.

Meat Filling
250g/9OZ minced beef
1 diced onion
1/2 cup tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp chopped fresh sage
1 tsp oregano
1 TBs cooking oil

Fry mince & onion in the oil till the meat is browned and the onions soft. Add other ingredients and slowly simmer until reduced and well flavoured. The sauce must be thick enough to stuff your cannelloni tubes.

Tomato Sauce
This is simply 2 1/2 tins of chopped tomatoes, 1/2 cup of tomato paste and salt & pepper mixed in a bowl.

Vegetarian Filling
1/2 tub of low fat ricotta (150g/5OZ)
1 cup cooked and mashed butternut or buttercup pumpkin
1 1/2 cups cooked, drained and chopped spinach
1 small cooked onion diced
1/2 tsp vegetable stock powder
1 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp chopped fresh sage
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
salt & pepper

Mix ingredients in a large bowl and set aside

Bechamel Sauce
You can use a prepared Bechamel sauce from the supermarket, a packet cheese or white sauce or simply make your own roux.

1 cup grated cheese

Assembly
Preheat the oven to 200C/390F
Fill the cannelloni tubes (in this case 8 meat and 8 vege) use a tsp, a piping bag or even just a plastic bag with one corner cut off.
Pour approx 1/6 of the sauce in to the bottom of each of your two oven proof dishes. Place tubes on top of the sauce to prevent the pasta from burning in the oven. If you need to layer the tubes pour over more tomato sauce and add the rest of the cannelloni and the rest of the tomato sauce over the top.
Pour half of your cheese sauce over each dish and sprinkle grated cheese on top.
Cover with foil and place in preheated oven. Cook for approx 45 mins before removing the foil so that the top of the dish can be browned and the sauce becomes a little less wet. This was so good I was looking forward to it all day!