Mermaid Kitchen: Cannelloni

It's been a while since we ventured into the kitchen. Naturally, I have been baking and making (anyone see the mammoth bake or green icing on my personal insta?). But they were all recipes I have thrown at you before. However, with this lockdown and all the panic buying, a few weeks ago I found that the only pasta Morrisons had was cannelloni. We needed something and have since been experimenting with tubular pasta.

My first attempt, not pictured, was made with philly (ahem, saver's soft cheese) rather than ricotta because there was none in stock. It worked well enough but was definitely way too sweet. We made a couple more mistakes too; over reduced the tomato sauce, not enough tubes, and did not chop the spinach. That last one meant we got these massive long slugs of spinach followed by a mouthful of just philly. They did not mix well together. I didn't mind the mouthfuls of philly, the slugs were a little off putting, but my partner is not a big fan of soft cheese spread so he did not enjoy it as much. 

The second attempt went much better. First off, I managed to get ricotta in. And it was on a twofer deal, so there is one in the freezer ready and waiting for next time. We roughly chopped the spinach this time so they mixed together much better. More tubes of pasta were used this time, making it a much more filling dish, and we did not over reduce the sauce either. Setting ourselves up for a winner here!

Having the ricotta did work so much better. It was not as over-poweringly sweet as the philly was. I forgot to season it and you could very much tell - especially with how much flavour the sauce packed - but hey, third time's the charm. Overall, though, it was bloody delicious and I am looking forward to making it again.

INGREDIENTS

Pasta:

• Cannelloni tubes, x5 per person
• Tub of ricotta
• Plenty of spinach
• Seasoning - salt, pepper

Sauce:

• Onion
• Tinned tomatoes
• Seasoning - salt, pepper, etc
• Tomato puree

Topping:

• Grated cheese
• Black pepper

This fed two of us and would need scaling up if you wanted to serve more. Admittedly, we do have big appetites and eat way more than we should!

METHOD

1. Start with your sauce, it needs to be ready to go on top of the tubes once they are stuffed. So finely chop an onion of your choice. We usually go red, but it's whatever we can get at the moment!
2. Get a frying pan on the hob to warm the oil and seasonings. We added salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, and tarragon which is so old that it doesn't actually taste of anything. Our herb supplies are low right now.
3. Fry off the onions for a minute before adding the tinned tomatoes and puree.
4. Stir it all up, leave on a low heat to simmer.
5. Now for the stuffing! Boil the kettle and chop the spinach while you wait.
6. Blanche it in a bowl with the boiling water. This means cook it for a minute or so in the boiling water.
7. After a minute, strain your spinach. Make sure the bowl is empty of moisture, because we going to save on washing up and use it for mixing the cheese and spinach.
8. While your spinach strains, place the ricotta in the mixing bowl. You really don't want any excessive moisture or the mix will go super sloppy. 
9. Add your seasonings of choice. Salt and pepper are a must, chilli if you are a heathen like me.
10. Add the spinach to the cheese and mix! Chopping the spinach will mean it mixes in more consistently and you'll have an even(er) ratio of green/cheese.
11. Check on your sauce, give it a stir and make sure it is not burning or reducing too much. And turn the oven on to 200C while you are there.
12. Now it is time to stuff the tubes. Place the desired number of tubes in an oven proof dish. Stand them upright.
13. Using a teaspoon, start adding the cheese mix into your pasta tubes. I'm sure a more skilled chef would suggest piping the mix in but we all know I am terrible at piping. So I opted for the spoon and fondue fork: spoon the mixture onto the tube and then push down with the fork. It works well enough and is easier to wash than a piping kit.
14. Repeat until all tubes are full, laying them flat as you go. I found it was roughly three spoonfuls per tube, but there was plenty of mix leftover to top up any that had been ripped off. There was even enough leftover to put a fine layer over the top of the tubes.
15. Finally, add your sauce to the top of the tubes. It should be thick enough to be packed with flavour but still enough sauce to cover your tubes completely.
16. Garnish with cheese and cracked black pepper before putting in the oven for 25 minutes.
17. It should come out with the cheese melted and browned, the sauce bubbling at the sides. Like a lasagne.
18. Serve and enjoy!

As I said before, this fed two of us. You could divvy it into smaller portions and serve with something, or scale it up to feed more. The stuffing process is a little fiddly but, overall, it is a relatively simple dish to make. Easier than lasagne, I think. Plus, it mixes things up a little - we eat a lot of pasta so it's nice to know we have a new go-to dish.

Cannelloni has been a favourite of mine for a long time. I used to get it as a microwave meal when I was teenager and had way too many commitments on a Wednesday. It ticked all the boxes: quick to cook, vegetarian, cheesy, even had some vegetable content! It's one I would quite often opt for when dining out too. So it's really nice to be able to make it myself now. Maybe one day I will even crack out the pasta maker and do everything from scratch! (Not the cheese, obviously, I cannot make cheese.) But perhaps when there is a little more flour in stock.

Anyone else struggling for flour? I literally put it on my shopping list every week, just in case. But nope. There's usually one sad bad of wholemeal bread flour in the same bag Morrisons package their pies in. Somehow I think wholemeal bread flour won't go well in a cake. But please, correct me if I am wrong! I am below 1oz on both plain and self raising flour. I want to bake damnit!

Still, a friend has shared a couple cheesecake recipes so I guess it is finally time to brave cheesecake again! I'll let you know how it goes.

In the mean time, will you be trying cannelloni? Any suggestions for varying my pasta intake? What lockdown variations have you been trying? Lemme know below.

And don't forget! My new podcast is up and running, so please do listen. If you have any topics you want to hear about, let me know. Contact info is here.

Listening to: Daily Mix 1