Plated + Served: Homemade Cannelloni
This is a recipe you should make with someone you love.
There’s something incredibly seductive about making your own pasta and sauce. Perhaps it’s the time it takes to gently work the dough… or the beckoning smell of the simmering sauce… or sharing a glass of wine along the way. Of course, it could be the anticipation of the delicious reward for your efforts.
One of you make the pasta, the other the sauce and filling. Enjoy each other as you do it.
And after dinner close the doors, turn up the music… and dance.
Is there anything better?
Homemade Cannelloni
prep: 1 hour (includes pasta resting)
cook: 45 minutes
for the pasta you’ll need…
1½ cups all-purpose or semolina flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs beaten
for the sauce you’ll need…
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups chopped tomatoes
3 garlic cloves, minced
8 basil leaves, chopped
for the filling you’ll need…
1 cup ricotta cheese
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded or cut into small dice
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups grated Parmesan cheese, divided
let’s get to it… first the pasta:
Mound the flour and salt on your work surface; make a well in the center. Add 2 beaten eggs to the well. With your hands or a fork, bring the dry ingredients into the wet until the dough is smooth but tacky. Wrap with plastic and let rest for 20 minutes. (Doesn’t have to be refrigerated).
Divide the dough into quarters and cover others with a damp kitchen towel. Roll one piece into a thin sheet about 1/16-inch (or run it through a pasta roller according to the directions). Proceed as instructed with other dough pieces. Cut pasta into 24 3×4-inch pieces.
Wet and wring out a kitchen towel and spread on top of a baking sheet; set aside.
Boil a large pot of lightly salted water. In batches, add the pasta squares a few at a time to the water and cook for 30-seconds to 1-minute. Drain and cool the pasta squares on the wet kitchen towel.
now the sauce…
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan on medium heat for 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium low and add the chopped tomatoes and garlic. Cook for 20 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and stir in the chopped basil leaves. Lightly oil a 9 x 13-inch baking dish (like for lasagna). Pour 1 cup of the sauce into the bottom of the baking dish and spread it around; set aside.
now the filling…
Place oven rack in the center. Heat oven to 350°F.
Mix the ricotta, mozzarella, 2 beaten eggs and 1 cup of the Parmesan cheese together in a medium bowl until well blended. Spread a few tablespoons of the filling on each of the cooked pasta squares. Roll them up and place side by side in a single layer in the baking dish on top of the sauce. Pour remaining sauce on top of the cannelloni and with the rest of the Parmesan cheese.
Bake for 20 minutes or until hot and bubbly.
