Cheese and spinach cannelloni
Cheese and spinach cannelloni is made using fresh pasta with a cheese and spinach filling and topped with a homemade tomato sauce. This dish can also be prepared using store bought dried pasta tubes instead of homemade pasta and a ready made sauce can be used to save time.
Equipment
- 20cm by 16cm ovenproof dish (or equivalent size)
Ingredients
For the pasta
- 100 g flour
- 1 egg
- 1 pinch salt
For the filling
- 200 g ricotta cheese (or feta)
- 100 g spinach (uncooked weight)
- 1 lemon zest
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch pepper
For the sauce
- 1 red onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 pinch dried chilli (optional)
- 500 g tomatoes (fresh)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon basil
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch pepper
- 2 tablespoon grated Parmesan
Instructions
To make the pasta
- Place the flour, egg and salt in a bowl. Mix together with a fork and then finally use your hands to combine the dough into one mass.
- Pass through the thickest setting on the pasta machine. Fold the dough over itself and pass through the thickest setting several times until the dough has lost its lumpiness and feels smooth.
- Pass through the machine again, reducing the thickness each time, until the desired thickness is reached.
- Cut into squares or rectangles. For a 20cm by 16cm baking dish I find that a size of 8cm by 10cm works well (with 8cm being the circumference of the cannelloni tube). If you are using a different sized dish then adjust the size and number of pasta sheets to suit your baking dish.
- Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Drop the pasta sheets into the boiling water and cook for approximately 2 to 3 minutes until al dente.
- Remove the cooked pasta rectangles from the pan and drop into a bowl of cold water. When they have cooled, drain the water and leave the pasta sheets to dry.
To make the filling
- Lightly steam the spinach and set aside to cool. Squeeze any moisture of the spinach and then finely chop.
- Crumble the ricotta or feta into a large bowl. Add the lemon zest, chopped spinach and a little salt and pepper and stir until evenly combined.
To make the sauce
- Finely chop the onion and garlic and finely chop the dried chilli (if using).
- Roughly chop the tomatoes into chunks. It isn't necessary to remove the skins.
- Gently cook the onion, garlic and chilli (if using) in the olive oil until soft. Add the chopped tomatoes, herbs and salt and pepper. Stir and cook over a gently heat until the tomatoes have softened, this may take around 5 to 10 minutes or so. This should create a thick sauce with chunks of tomato ready to top the cannelloni.
To assemble
- Take a spoonful of the cheese and spinach mixture and form a compressed sausage shape across the centre of one rectangle of pasta.
- Roll the pasta over the filling to form a tube. There is no need to overlap the pasta, simply roll sufficiently to enclose the filling. Place seam down along one side of an ovenproof dish.
- Continue with the rest of the filling and pasta. The filled tubes should fill the base of the dish (one layer). It doesn't matter if the tubes turn out to be slightly different sizes as they will be covered by the sauce.
- Spoon the tomato sauce over the filled rolls of cannelloni to completely cover the pasta.
- Bake in the centre of the oven at 190oC, 375oF, gas mark for around 20 minutes or until cooked. Check it is heated through by placing a skewer into the filling.
- Sprinkle grated Parmesan over the top and then serve.
Nutrition
Calories: 564kcalCarbohydrates: 62gProtein: 26gFat: 25gSaturated Fat: 11gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 10gTrans Fat: 0.01gCholesterol: 137mgSodium: 320mgPotassium: 1210mgFiber: 8gSugar: 10gVitamin A: 7536IUVitamin C: 58mgCalcium: 399mgIron: 6mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!