Three Cheese and Spinach Cannelloni

This is a lovely rich vegetarian dish that can easily be scaled down in quantity by halfing all the ingredients.

Ingredients

  • 900g bag of frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
  • 1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 40g butter
  • 60g plain flour
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
  • 2 tins of chopped tomatoes
  • 140g tomato puree
  • 150ml water
  • 2 pints of whole milk
  • 300g soft goats cheese
  • 200g grated grana padano cheese
  • 200g feta cheese, very finely chopped
  • 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
  • 500g cannelloni
  • 2 balls of whole mozzarella

Method

  1. Get the frozen spinach out to defrost.
  2. Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
  3. Fry the onion over a medium-low heat with 2 tbsp of the olive oil.
  4. In another pan, melt the butter over a medium low heat with the other 2 tbsp of olive oil.
  5. Once the butter is melted, stir in the flour until smooth.
  6. Cook the flour and oil mixture (a roux) for a couple of minutes.
  7. Meanwhile the onion probably will have softenedby now, so add the garlic, chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and 150ml water to the onions and mix well.
  8. Reduce the heat under the tomato mixture to low and let it simmer away while you prepare the rest of the dish.
  9. You can stop here and freeze it for cooking later, just make sure to defrost it fully before cooking and adding an extra 10 minutes to the cooking time if it's come straight out of the fridge.
  10. Adding a little bit at a time, combine the milk with the roux, making sure it's well mixed in after each addition of milk. This takes a bit of time, but should stop it from getting any lumps.
  11. Reduce the heat under the milk to low and let it simmer away, stiring every couple of minutes to make sure it's not sticking.
  12. Lastly combine the spinach, goats cheese, half (100g) of the grana padano and all of the feta in a large bowl.
  13. Add the nutmeg to the spinach and cheese mixture and mix until fully combined.
  14. Get a couple of large oven proof dishes and make sure that all the cannelloni can fit in them: this is far easier to check before adding the sauces!
  15. Take the tomato sauce and spread it out over the base of your oven proof dishes.
  16. Now put the spinach and cheese mixture into a large ziplock bag, cut one of the corners off and use it as a piping bag to fill the cannelloni, placing them on top of the tomato sauce after you've filled them.
  17. Once all the cannelloni are filled, make sure they are neatly arranged and top with the white sauce.
  18. Tear up the mozzarella balls into small pieces with your fingers and sprinkle over the tops of the white sauce before finally doing the same with the last of the grated grana padano.
  19. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, until the top is starting to brown and it's all bubbling nicely.
Serves 8.

Comments

Post a Comment