Spinach & ricotta canneloni
I have a beautiful Italian cookbook, Italy – The Beautiful Cookbook, one of those fabulous cookbooks describing the country and its people and traditions as much as it does the food. Next to the canneloni recipe in the book is a yellow post-it note saying “Now you have no more excuses.” A remnant from days gone by when I was still a software developer, rarely having the time to indulge in cooking. The story goes that I had once made spinach and ricotta canneloni at home and took some to work the next day for lunch and was heralded a kind of kitchen goddess for having made such a dish. I promised some of the guys I worked with that I’ll make a big dish for them someday. When my birthday came not too long after, the whole office banded together to buy me the gorgeous cookbook and added the little note as a reminder of my promise.
Spinach and Ricotta Canneloni
Tonight I’ve not looked in that book for the recipe, and I’m sure the canneloni in there is much more extravagant and flavourful, but the dish I made was fabulous nonetheless. It is a quick and easy vegetarian meal which I zooshed up a bit with herbs & spices. I have once even added a pinch of nutmeg to the spinach and ricotta which was fabulous too; and think I may have at some point added mushrooms to the spinach mixture also … but this is the bare basic recipe.
The fun of tonight’s canneloni for me was that I could not find ready made boxed canneloni pasta rolls … so I decided to make the pasta myself (I LOVE making our own pasta!). I got home though and to my surprise found that we also no longer had any eggs (for the pasta mix), but I remember that you can substitute egg for water, so for the first time I made the pasta with water, and you know what, I actually think I prefer it that way.
Ingredients
Canneloni
- 200g all purpose flour
- 1/2 tall glass of filtered water
Spinach & ricotta
- 1 to 2 bunches of spinach (depending on how much spinach you want; spinach to ricotta ratio)
- 300g – 500g ricotta (depending on how much ricotta you want; spinach to ricotta ratio)
- Salt
Tomato sauce
- 2 cans chopped tomato in tomato sauce (Serena is a good brand, nothing but tomato, tomato sauce)
- mixed herbs
- salt
- pepper
Other
- Parmesan
- Basil
Method
- For the spinach & ricotta: steam/cook spinach until well wilted in salted water, drain and mix through with ricotta. Set aside.
- For the pasta: slowly add water to the flour and mix with a fork until dough is formed, knead with hands until a homogenous ball of dough is formed (a good dough is pliable without ever sticking to your hands). Run through pasta machine, or roll out very thinly, into lasagna sheets
- Scoop some spinach & ricotta mixture onto the lasagna sheet of pasta and roll it closed; cut with a pizza cutter to form a tube filled with mixture. Continue till all the mixture and all the pasta is used. If you use boxed canneloni, you just stuff each tube with as much mixture as you can without breaking the delicate pasta shells.
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
- Layer half of the tomato mixture in a ovenproof baking dish and season with salt, pepper and herbs. Place canneloni rolls on top of this and sprinkle with a thin layer of parmesan cheese. Continue with a second layer of filled canneloni rolls, top with rest of tomato and herb mixture and sprinkle with a generous amount of parmesan.
- Bake in 180C oven for 30 to 45 minutes
- Garnish with basil and serve with extra parmesan on the side.