Spinach, fennel & goat’s cheese cannelloni
Homemade pasta is a labour of love, but the results are spectacular when rolled into a luxurious triple cheese bake
Difficulty and servings
Serves 6 - 8
Preparation and cooking times
Ready in 2 hours 30 mins + resting and infusing
- To make the pasta, lightly beat the 2 whole eggs and keep the yolks in a separate bowl. Put the flour into a bowl or pour onto the work surface. Sprinkle on 1 tsp salt. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the whole eggs. Bring the flour into the well gradually, mixing it with the eggs. Add the remaining egg yolk gradually. Flour absorbs liquid at different rates depending on the age of the flour and the humidity of the surroundings in which you are cooking, so just add enough egg to bring everything together into a ball. If you prefer to make the pasta in a machine then put the flour, salt and 2/3 of the beaten egg together in a food processor fitted with the plastic blade. Process until it comes together into a ball, adding more beaten egg and additional yolk as you need it.
- Put the ball of dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes. The dough should be smooth and feel slightly elastic. Wrap it in clingfilm and leave for an hour to rest.
- To make the béchamel sauce, heat the milk with the onion, bay and peppercorns until boiling. Leave off the heat to infuse for 30 minutes. Strain. Melt the butter in a pan, mix in the flour and cook for a couple of minutes until straw coloured, then gradually whisk in the infused milk to make a sauce. Simmer for 3 minutes. Stir in the cream and season.
- Separate the pasta into 3 balls. Using a rolling pin, roll the first ball until about 1cm thick. Adjust a pasta machine to its widest setting and feed the dough through this 3 times, then repeat, moving along the different settings on the machine until you have a long thin sheet. Don't worry if the pasta looks a bit streaky at some points - it will be fine when you get to the end of the rolling. When you've worked your way through all the settings fold the pasta in half and run through the settings again in order. Eventually you will notice that the pasta will have developed a good sheen. When you've done this cut the pasta in half, fold each half in three (it should be about the width of the rollers on the pasta machine. Feed the pasta through the settings again, this time widthways, not lengthways (so that you are putting equal pressure throughout the pasta). You need to go through this process with all the balls of pasta.
- Lay each sheet out on a lightly floured surface as it is ready (you need plenty of room). Keep covered. Cut the pasta into rectangles - about 10cm x 16cm. Trim off edges that are thicker or uneven. Allow your pieces of pasta to rest for about 15 minutes, keeping them covered.
- Put the spinach into a large saucepan with the water left clinging to it after washing and wilt the spinach over a low-medium heat. Cool.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the leeks and a splash of water. Season then cook for about 20 minutes. They should be soft and buttery. If very wet, whack the heat up and cook, uncovered, to drive off the excess moisture. Melt the rest of the butter in a frying pan and cook the fennel until it is pale golden and tender. Put the leeks and fennel into a bowl.
- Butter a large ovenproof dish approx 34 x 26 cm and heat the oven to 190C/ fan 170C/gas 5. When the spinach is cool squeeze out all the excess moisture and roughly chop. Put it in the bowl with the other veg. Add the cheeses (hold back 1/3 of the parmesan) and mix well. Season.
- Cook the pasta in lots of boiling, lightly salted water (the sheets will cook in about 2 minutes). Do a couple of sheets at a time and keep agitating the water so that the sheets don't stick together. Lift the sheets into bowls of cold water into which you've stirred 1 tbsp of olive oil (this helps to keep the sheets from sticking together). Lift each sheet out as you need it and briefly lay it on a linen tea towel to drain when you want to fill it. Spoon the mixture along the long side of the pieces of pasta then roll them up to form cannelloni.
- Spread a very thin layer of the béchamel over the bottom of the buttered dish and lay the cannelloni in a single layer on top. Pour the rest of the béchamel sauce over the top. Sprinkle with the remaining parmesan and bake for 20-30 minutes. The top should be golden and bubbling - flash it under the grill if you need to finish.
PER SERVING
697 kcalories, protein 30.7g, carbohydrate 43.7g, fat 43.8 g, saturated fat 26.5g, fibre 6.5g, salt 2.2 g
Recipe from olive magazine, May 2012.
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Ingredients
- 500g young spinach , washed
- 30g butter
- 2 leeks , sliced
- 1 head fennel , trimmed and diced
- 200g ricotta
- 300g goat's cheese
- 100g parmesan , grated
PASTA
BECHAMEL
- 500ml whole milk
- ½ a small onion
- 1 bay leaf
- 5 peppercorns
- 25g butter
- 35g plain flour
- 75ml double cream
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Difficulty and servings
Serves 6 - 8
Preparation and cooking times
Ready in 2 hours 30 mins + resting and infusing
Ingredients
- 500g young spinach , washed
- 30g butter
- 2 leeks , sliced
- 1 head fennel , trimmed and diced
- 200g ricotta
- 300g goat's cheese
- 100g parmesan , grated
PASTA
BECHAMEL
- 500ml whole milk
- ½ a small onion
- 1 bay leaf
- 5 peppercorns
- 25g butter
- 35g plain flour
- 75ml double cream
PER SERVING
697 kcalories, protein 30.7g, carbohydrate 43.7g, fat 43.8 g, saturated fat 26.5g, fibre 6.5g, salt 2.2 g
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- You get an online binder, where you can store all your favourite recipes and create menus.
