Life is a Cannelloni..........
Friday was a fun day, a couple of hours with screaming kids at Escape, followed by an hours swimming, shopping at Asda, home to do a few jobs and it was about 5 o'clock before I realised I'd not even considered tea.
You've probably realised by now that I have a bit of a Ready, Steady Cook streak and I needed to put it into action. First job - look at the facts. The freezer revealed a frozen pack of minced pork, I had onions and garlic, tinned tomatoes and lurking in the back of the cupboard a pack of dried cannelloni tubes, in the fridge 2 balls of mozzarella with only a few days left. I know I'd been shopping, but that was for tomorrows barbecue.
In the back of my mind I was sure I had a recipe somewhere for cannelloni with pork. I found it in the Delia How to Cook Book One, page 230, Baked Cannelloni. It's a silly book that tells you how to boil eggs and cook potatoes, but it does have the odd decent recipe, however, this one wasn't quite what I was looking for, so I researched a bit on the internet and came up with my own version, a mix of all I'd seen and read.
Maria's Cannelloni
The pack of pork mince I had was 750g and was too big really, hence I had enough mix left to make 12 meatballs to add to pasta and a tomato sauce at a later date.
So I recommend that you use 500g of minced pork and put it in the bowl of your food processor. Add a handful of breadcrumbs, this bit is important if you don't have a slice of good quality slightly stale, white, crustless bread then leave this out. I used a nasty bit of Sainsbury's cob and I could taste it in the finished dish. Add a good grating of nutmeg and some dried sage and an egg. Fry a finely chopped onion and 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic in oil until soft and translucent. Add them to the processor with the other ingredients, season well with salt and pepper. Whizz all the ingredients together until the mix resembles sausagemeat. Chill in the fridge until you are ready to use.
Next you need about a pint of tomato sauce (as in pasta sauce not ketchup!!). You can make your own if you have the time and a good recipe. I didn't have the time, so I used a jar of tomato and garlic sauce and made it go further by adding a drained tin of chopped tomatoes.
Then you need some béchamel sauce. This recipe is for 1 pint, I used half as my dish was not too big, I used about 12 cannelloni tubes to make the dish (The mix should make 18-20, this should help you choose the size of your dish). Put 1 pint of milk, 2oz butter, 1 1/4 oz of plain flour, 1 bayleaf, a good grating of nutmeg and salt and pepper into a pan. Put on a gentle heat and keep stirring with a whisk until a simmering sauce forms that will coat the back of a wooden spoon.
Finally slice up 2 balls of mozzarella.
It's now time to assemble. Lightly oil an oven proof dish. You then need to fill the cannelloni, you can do this with a spoon, but I made a piping bag out of a plastic bag (just cut off the corner) and squeezed the mix in, this worked quickly and efficiently. Line the filled tubes up in your dish, until it's full or the mix runs out. If you have any mix left over make meatballs or burgers with it. Cover the tubes with tomato sauce, top with the béchamel, and then cover with a layer of mozzarella. Bake in the oven at GM4/350F/180C for about 40 minutes until the pasta is soft and the top is golden and bubbling. Serve with a salad or some steamed green beans or broccoli.
Variation: You could use rolled fresh lasagne sheets instead of the dried cannelloni, if you do you can omit the tomato sauce and just use more béchamel. You can use different cheese, sprinkle the top with parmesan. You can add different herbs to the meat mix and even a little chopped pancetta or bacon.
It was a really good alternative to lasagne. It went down well with the family who loved having something so tasty and different. It has nice creamy sauce, with firm pasta and soft flavoursome meat, with a sharp edge from the tomato. As ever with mozzarella, the top was crisp and brown and cheesy. As I say, the only thing I didn't like was the taste of the bread, but it was because I used such cheap, horrible bread, so like I say, use something good or don't bother. Oh...and Tony said it was seriously lacking a good helping of garlic bread!!
That's it for today...tomorrow speedy speedy flat breads.
You've probably realised by now that I have a bit of a Ready, Steady Cook streak and I needed to put it into action. First job - look at the facts. The freezer revealed a frozen pack of minced pork, I had onions and garlic, tinned tomatoes and lurking in the back of the cupboard a pack of dried cannelloni tubes, in the fridge 2 balls of mozzarella with only a few days left. I know I'd been shopping, but that was for tomorrows barbecue.
In the back of my mind I was sure I had a recipe somewhere for cannelloni with pork. I found it in the Delia How to Cook Book One, page 230, Baked Cannelloni. It's a silly book that tells you how to boil eggs and cook potatoes, but it does have the odd decent recipe, however, this one wasn't quite what I was looking for, so I researched a bit on the internet and came up with my own version, a mix of all I'd seen and read.
Maria's Cannelloni
The pack of pork mince I had was 750g and was too big really, hence I had enough mix left to make 12 meatballs to add to pasta and a tomato sauce at a later date.
So I recommend that you use 500g of minced pork and put it in the bowl of your food processor. Add a handful of breadcrumbs, this bit is important if you don't have a slice of good quality slightly stale, white, crustless bread then leave this out. I used a nasty bit of Sainsbury's cob and I could taste it in the finished dish. Add a good grating of nutmeg and some dried sage and an egg. Fry a finely chopped onion and 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic in oil until soft and translucent. Add them to the processor with the other ingredients, season well with salt and pepper. Whizz all the ingredients together until the mix resembles sausagemeat. Chill in the fridge until you are ready to use.
Next you need about a pint of tomato sauce (as in pasta sauce not ketchup!!). You can make your own if you have the time and a good recipe. I didn't have the time, so I used a jar of tomato and garlic sauce and made it go further by adding a drained tin of chopped tomatoes.
Then you need some béchamel sauce. This recipe is for 1 pint, I used half as my dish was not too big, I used about 12 cannelloni tubes to make the dish (The mix should make 18-20, this should help you choose the size of your dish). Put 1 pint of milk, 2oz butter, 1 1/4 oz of plain flour, 1 bayleaf, a good grating of nutmeg and salt and pepper into a pan. Put on a gentle heat and keep stirring with a whisk until a simmering sauce forms that will coat the back of a wooden spoon.
Finally slice up 2 balls of mozzarella.
It's now time to assemble. Lightly oil an oven proof dish. You then need to fill the cannelloni, you can do this with a spoon, but I made a piping bag out of a plastic bag (just cut off the corner) and squeezed the mix in, this worked quickly and efficiently. Line the filled tubes up in your dish, until it's full or the mix runs out. If you have any mix left over make meatballs or burgers with it. Cover the tubes with tomato sauce, top with the béchamel, and then cover with a layer of mozzarella. Bake in the oven at GM4/350F/180C for about 40 minutes until the pasta is soft and the top is golden and bubbling. Serve with a salad or some steamed green beans or broccoli.
Variation: You could use rolled fresh lasagne sheets instead of the dried cannelloni, if you do you can omit the tomato sauce and just use more béchamel. You can use different cheese, sprinkle the top with parmesan. You can add different herbs to the meat mix and even a little chopped pancetta or bacon.
It was a really good alternative to lasagne. It went down well with the family who loved having something so tasty and different. It has nice creamy sauce, with firm pasta and soft flavoursome meat, with a sharp edge from the tomato. As ever with mozzarella, the top was crisp and brown and cheesy. As I say, the only thing I didn't like was the taste of the bread, but it was because I used such cheap, horrible bread, so like I say, use something good or don't bother. Oh...and Tony said it was seriously lacking a good helping of garlic bread!!
That's it for today...tomorrow speedy speedy flat breads.
Yam Yam it looks delicious.
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