Cannelloni are large pasta tubes, perfect for stuffing with your favourite filling and baking in the oven. They’re a great option when feeding a crowd as little work is required. Here we give a vegetarian example of a spinach and ricotta cannelloni recipe, but the filling can be varied to suit your own tastes.
Ingredients
Metric
Imperial
- 12 cannelloni tubes
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
- 1 bunch of basil, chopped
- 500g of spinach, washed
- 500g of ricotta
- 50g of Parmesan
- 1 egg
- 100g of mozzarella cheese, grated
- salt
- black pepper
1
Preheat the oven to 180℃/gas mark 4
2
Heat a saucepan over a medium heat with a little oil and sweat down the onion and garlic without colouring
3
Add the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper, bring to the boil then leave to simmer for around 20 minutes until the sauce has thickened. Add the basil
4
Meanwhile, sweat down the spinach in a pan and drain off any excess moisture in a sieve
5
Chop the spinach and place in a bowl with the ricotta and Parmesan. Beat in the egg, then season with salt and pepper
6
Place half the sauce in the base of a baking dish. Transfer the filling mixture to a piping bag then pipe the mixture into the cannelloni and place them into the dish on top of the sauce
7
Cover with the remaining tomato sauce and grated mozzarella and bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes, until a knife goes easily through the pasta and the top is golden brown
8
Leave to rest for 5 minutes before dividing between plates and serving
Variations
Cannelloni make a great vegetarian main course – try Marcus Wareing’s Cannelloni with spinach, pumpkin and nutmeg. For a meaty cannelloni, try using a Bolognese ragu as the filling, or do what Matthew Tomkinson does and serve a delicious Cannelloni of braised English rabbit with glazed spring vegetables and black pudding purée.
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