Italian Style Pork And Spinach Cannelloni Recipes

TWICE AS GOOD BEEF & PORK CANNELLONI

Steps:

• Filling: Brown garlic in olive oil. Add beef, pork, and 1/2 cup of pasta sauce (from the Tomato Sauce ingredients) and stir to combine. Brown until cooked and allow to cool to a manageable temperature.
• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Whisk eggs. Add the eggs, bread crumbs, ricotta, and parmesan cheese to the meat mixture.
• Use a piping bag to fill the cannelloni noodles.
• Red Sauce: Combine all ingredients and use half to cover the bottom of a baking dish (13 x 9 Corning or glass ware).
• Lay filled cannelloni noodles onto the sauce, then cover with remaining sauce.
• Cover with foil and bake for 1/2 - 3/4 hour or until bubbly.
• Cream Sauce: Make a roux with the butter and flour. Add remaining ingredients and whisk over medium heat until thickened.
• Spoon over individual servings of cannelloni and serve.

MEAT AND SPINACH CANNELLONI

Steps:

• Pour the hot stock over the porcini in a small heatproof bowl. Let stand until softened, about 20 minutes. Drain the porcini, reserving the liquid. Rinse the porcini to remove sand and grit, and strain the soaking liquid through a coffee filter or a double thickness of cheesecloth. Reserve the mushrooms and liquid separately.
• Preheat the oven to 400° F. Cut the pork into 2-inch pieces and place them in a roasting pan large enough to hold them comfortably. Add the carrots, celery, onion, rosemary leaves, and the reserved porcini. Season lightly with salt, drizzle 3 tablespoons of the olive oil over all, and toss well. Pour in the wine. Roast until the wine has evaporated and the meat begins to brown, about 25 minutes. Continue roasting, adding 1/2 cup of the reserved mushroom-soaking liquid every 15 minutes or so, until the meat and vegetables are well browned and the meat is tender, about 2 hours. At the end of the roasting, there should be about 1 1/2 cups of liquid in the roasting pan. Drain the meat and vegetables, reserving the liquid. Toss the mortadella in with the meats and vegetables and cool to room temperature.
• Meanwhile, in a wide skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat. Whack the garlic with the flat side of a knife, add it to the oil, and cook until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Add as much spinach as will fit comfortably into the pan. Continue cooking, stirring and adding the remaining spinach a large handful at a time when the spinach in the pan wilts enough to make room, until all the spinach is added. Season lightly with salt and pepper and cook until all the spinach is wilted and tender. Remove from the heat.
• Make the béchamel sauce.
• Pass the meat-and-vegetable mixture through a meat grinder fitted with a disc with holes about 1/4 inch in diameter. Stir in 1/4 cup of the grated cheese and 1/2 cup of the béchamel sauce, blending the filling well as you do. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Beat the eggs until foamy, then stir them into the ground-meat mixture.
• Preheat the oven to 375° F. Ladle about 3/4 cup of the béchamel sauce in an even layer over the bottom of each of two 13 × 9-inch baking dishes. Spoon 1/3 cup of the filling in a more or less even mound along one edge of one of the pasta squares. Roll up into a tube, pressing and evening out the tube as you roll. Arrange the cannelloni into the prepared baking dish, side by side and seam side down. Divide the remaining béchamel evenly between the two baking dishes, smoothing it into an even layer over the cannelloni. Drizzle about three-quarters of the reserved meat-cooking liquid over the cannelloni, dividing it evenly. Sprinkle the tops with 1 cup of the grated cheese. Cover the dishes with aluminum foil and bake 20 minutes. Uncover the baking dishes and bake until the tops are golden brown and bubbling, about 20 minutes. If the tops are browning unevenly, rotate the baking dishes from side to side and shelf to shelf, then continue baking. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. Lift the cannelloni to warm plates with a spatula and spoon some of the sauce over each serving. Pass additional grated cheese if you like.

ITALIAN STYLE PORK AND SPINACH CANNELLONI

Steps:

• Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
• In a large bowl combine the pork mince, ricotta, spinach leaves, eggs, lemon thyme and pepper and mix well.
• Place the pork mixture into a piping bag with a large 4 cm plain tube.
• Lay the lasagne sheets on flat board and cut sheets into 2 or 3 sections depending upon size.
• Pipe the pork mixture onto the centre of each sheet of pasta. Roll to enclose filling. Brush the edge with a little water to seal. Place each roll fold side down in a shallow oven-proof dish in a single layer.
• Pour over the tomato pasta sauce and sprinkle surface with grated mozzarella cheese.
• Bake in the pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes until cheese is bubbling. Serve hot with crisp garden salad.
• Note:.
• This dish can be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated for 48 hours prior to baking.