Serves: 4 - 6
Cannelloni are cylindrical type of pasta that are stuffed with a filling and covered by a sauce.
Today, I’m using pasta sheets to make my own cannelloni and stuffing them with roasted veggies, ground pork, and feta cheese blend. A simple tomato sauce on the bottom and then wonderful béchamel sauce on top with mozzarella and parmigiano to complete the dish. Serve with bread to scoop up the sauce and an Insalata Verdi and you have a full meal.
It really isn’t hard to make this dish but there are several steps to get each of the components made. Therefore, I’m breaking the ingredients into the different components so you can easily see what is required for each section.
Ingredients for roasted veggies
3 cups diced eggplant
2 cups diced leeks
2 cups diced bell peppers
2 cups diced asparagus
2 cups diced zucchini
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp garlic salt or salt and pepper to taste
Ingredients for meat
1 tbsp olive oil
400 grams ground pork
1 tbsp garlic salt or salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp hot red pepper flakes (optional)
Ingredients for tomato sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
1 shallot finely diced
1 jar (300 ml) tomato passata or sauce
¼ cup water to wash out jar
2 tbsp tomato paste
Ingredients to pull it all together
Store bought pasta sheets
Feta cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
1 x of my Béchamel Sauce recipe (or your own)
Directions
Preheat oven 425°F and line baking sheet with aluminum foil
Place all the ingredients in roasted veggies section in a large bowl and using your hands mix everything well so all the veggies are coated with oil and seasoning
Lay veggies out on baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes then stir them well
Keep baking until soft and stirring every 10 minutes, it took me 40 minutes to cook up the multi-layer veggie tray. This oven in Italy is tiny so don’t have my large baking sheet
When done place veggies in bowl and let cool but leave oven on for the pasta later
Meanwhile in a skillet, heat oil on high and sauté ground pork, garlic salt, and I like to spice up my cannelloni therefore I added red pepper flakes too
Sauté until meat has browned and set aside in a bowl to cool
In a sauce pan, heat olive oil and add shallots. Sauté until they are translucent
Pour in tomato passata, water and tomato paste and stir well
Let sauce cook for 5 minutes then set aside
I make the béchamel sauce after I’ve made and placed the cannelloni in the baking pan so it can be poured onto the cannelloni as soon as it is ready
Let’s put together the cannelloni. In a large bowl add the veggies and ground meat
Using your hands, squeeze the veggies and meat together until you have a good mixture of veggies and meat
Wash your hands before starting with the pasta sheets
Lay out a pasta sheet and place two tablespoon filling 1/3 of the way down the pasta sheet
Sprinkle some feta cheese on top of filling
Taking the short end of the pasta, roll tightly until you have a cylinder
Set aside and keep doing this step until you have used up all the filling
In your baking dish pour in the tomato sauce on the bottom
Place the cannelloni on top of the sauce
Now make your béchamel sauce and pour it on top of the cannelloni
Sprinkle with mozzarella and parmesan cheese and cover dish with aluminum foil
Bake for 20 minutes then take out of oven and remove foil
Bake a further 20 minutes uncovered until top is golden brown
Take out of oven and let cool before serving
I served with an Insalate Verdi and sliced bread
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