Hey, you! ! How’s it going?
Today’s recipe is going to be Baked Cannelloni. I’ve always wondered why is it that Cannelloni isn’t as popular as Lasagna. I mean, every Italian restaurant I go to always has Lasagna in their menu, but Cannelloni? It’s very rare. It’s not much different. Although Lasagna has béchamel. But recently, I was talking with a trainee of mine who is Italian and he mentioned that his Italian grandmother does not put béchamel in her lasagna. It’s so confusing. What is real Italian or not? It’s like the big debate with Pasta Carbonara, cream or no cream?
Baked Cannelloni is special to me because Dad used to make this when I was younger. This was a big hit especially in the Philippines because it was so unpopular. I remembered how much my Mother-in-law loved this, as well as my husband’s aunt. I never got Dad’s recipe, but I remembered one thing. Day-old bread in the stuffing. That was his secret. I think without that Cannelloni has a tendency to be dry.
Baked Cannelloni
Ingredients:
2 garlic cloves, minced
olive oil
350g ground beef
2 eggs
half a French baguette
200ml milk
200g grated cheese + more cheese to cover the pasta at the end
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of black pepper
400g canned tomatoes, diced + a bit of water to clean the can
1 onion, diced
1 tbsp sugar
1 pinch of herbes de provence
butter
cannelloni pasta
First, preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Take half a French baguette and let it soak in the milk. With your finger, break apart in small pieces. Make sure the bread is really soft.
Heat olive oil in a pan. Add the minced garlic and ground beef. Cook until the beef turns brown. Set aside and let it cool.
In a bowl, beat the eggs. Add the cheese, meat, and the bread to the eggs. Season with salt and black pepper. Mix together well. Stuff the cannelloni pasta with the mixture. Set aside.
In a sauce pan, heat olive oil. Add the diced onion and cook until translucent. Add the diced tomatoes and the water. Add sugar and herbes de provence. Season with salt and black pepper. Cook until it starts to boil. Turn off the heat and set it aside.
Prepare your baking dish. You may use butter or oil. I personally like this cooking spray which I bought in Cora Supermarket. It works great.
After greasing your pan, add a ladle full of sauce to the dish.
Transfer the stuffed cannelloni to the baking dish.
Cover the pasta with the rest of the tomato sauce. Then add the cheese and butter cubes. Season with salt and black pepper.
Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes.
Remove the aluminum foil. Change the oven to grill / broil mode and bake for 5 minutes.
Serve hot and enjoy!
P.S. We personally love this with a side of green salad.