Cannelloni has been on my mind for some time now and finally on a chilly Sunday I took the time to put a batch together. Like lasagna, once you have all your ingredients prepared, the assembly goes quickly and is fun.
Using pre-made tubes and trying to fill them is a total pain so use fresh sheets of pasta cut to size to roll your cannelloni like a cigarette. You can use store bought fresh lasagna sheets or roll your own pasta dough from scratch. An old school trick nonna would use is to take the leftover scraps of pasta to cover the top of the cannelloni before baking, in order to keep the cannelloni tender underneath. After baking you would remove the pasta covering the cannelloni and discard them. The same effect can be achieved by using a piece of tinfoil but it is fun to follow old traditions.
For me a cannelloni should have a fine ground filling not a coarse ground. That means pulsing the filling quickly in a food processor to make it a little smoother. Again nonna would run the filling through a fine plate on her meat grinder, use whatever method you like. Whatever method, the end product should be denser and richer and not crumbly like burger meat.
The tomato topping can be your favourite marinara sauce or even a good store bought sauce. You can also decorate the top with a few lines of béchamel sauce or a scattering of fresh mozzarella.
Any way you finish it, cannelloni is a great change from lasagna and just as easy to make from scratch. Buon Appetito!
- Pasta dough described below or store bought FRESH lasagna sheets
- 4 cups of your favorite marinara sauce
- 2 balls fresh mozzarella
- Oregano for garnish
- 4 oz (115g) chicken breast Note: use ground or whole pieces cut to 1 inch chunks for all the meat.
- 4 oz (115g) veal
- 4 oz (115g) lean pork
- 1.8 oz (50g) prosciutto
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1/3 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
- 1/4 cup ricotta
- 1 whole egg and 1 yolk
- Pinch of nutmeg
- 10 grinds of fresh pepper
- Salt to taste
- 2 or 3 Tbsp of the marinara you will use to cook the cannelloni
- Cook the meat in a large sauté pan along with the garlic until browned on all sides and cooked through.
- You may have to do this in batches in order not to crowd the pan.
- Remove the cooked meat to the bowl of a food processor and let cool completely.
- Alternatively you can remove it to a bowl to cool before you run it through a grinder.
- Once the meat is cool you can add the remaining ingredients for the filling to the food processor and then pulse until it comes together into a fairly smooth mass.
- Scrape down the bowl a couple of times to make sure you blend it consistently.
- If you are making your own fresh pasta dough prepare it while the meat is cooking.
- I use 100 grams of pasta flour to each whole egg.
- For this recipe I would use 400 grams of flour so 4 whole eggs.
- Bring the dough together and knead until it is smooth and then let it rest while you finish the filling.
- Roll out the pasta to a little thinner than 1/8 of an inch and cut into 3" x 6" rectangles.
- Quickly boil the pasta sheets for 45 seconds to a minute in plenty of salted water and then drain them under cold running water and remove them to a damp kitchen towel.
- Alternatively you can use fresh store bought lasagna sheets cut to size and prepare them in the same manner.
- Before assembling the cannelloni taste a small piece of filling to make sure it is seasoned well and then begin.
- Spoon about a 1 inch cylinder of filling down the middle of the pasta rectangle, long side facing you.
- Roll the pasta over the filling like a cigarette squeezing the filling slightly so it is tightly packed and nice and round.
- Remove it to a lightly oiled baking dish and place it seam side down.
- Continue with the remaining cannelloni, filling the baking dish with one layer of barely touching cannelloni.
- At this point you can freeze them very well or refrigerate them till your ready to cook them.
- To bake the cannelloni cover them completely with your marinara sauce and then a loose layer of fresh mozzarella.
- I like to sprinkle the top with a little oregano.
- You can now cover the top with pasta scraps like nonna or a piece of tinfoil.
- If your cannelloni is covered completely with sauce and then more so with cheese you don't have to cover it at all since the cannelloni will be kept moist underneath.
- If you do cover it I would put the mozzarella on at the last ten minutes of baking uncovered so it doesn't stick to the foil, the same would go for nonna's method.
- Bake the cannelloni for about 30 to 40 minutes in a 350F oven until the sauce is bubbly and the cheese is just starting to brown.
Thanks for the recipe and the tips! I have never tried this before (too intimidated) but I love lasagna and you make it sound pretty easy.