Spinach & ricotta cannelloni

Spinach & ricotta cannelloni

Keep a few portions of this vegetarian classic in the freezer and you'll never be stuck for a satisfying supper

Difficulty and servings

Easy

Makes 10 servings

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 50 mins

Cook time

Cook 40 mins

Vegetarian Freezable

Vegetarian

Method

  1. First make the tomato sauce. Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the garlic for 1 min. Add the sugar, vinegar, tomatoes and some seasoning and simmer for 20 mins, stirring occasionally, until thick. Add the basil and divide the sauce between 2 or more shallow ovenproof dishes (see Tips for freezing, below). Set aside. Make a sauce by beating the mascarpone with the milk until smooth, season, then set aside.
  2. Put the spinach in a large colander and pour over a kettle of boiling water to wilt it (you may need to do this in batches). When cool enough to handle squeeze out the excess water. Roughly chop the spinach and mix in a large bowl with 100g Parmesan and ricotta. Season well with salt, pepper and the nutmeg.
  3. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Using a piping bag or plastic food bag with the corner snipped off, squeeze the filling into the cannelloni tubes. Lay the tubes, side by side, on top of the tomato sauce and spoon over the mascarpone sauce. Top with Parmesan and mozzarella. You can now freeze the cannelloni, uncooked, or you can cook it first and then freeze. Bake for 30-35 mins until golden and bubbling. Remove from oven and let stand for 5 mins before serving.
Try

Variations

Make the recipe healthier by doubling the quantity of tomato sauce. Use to top cannelloni instead of creamy sauce. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs. To make it meaty, fill the cannelloni with a meat ragu or try adding some chopped fried bacon to the spinach mix.

Tips for freezing cooked cannelloni

Freeze individual cooked portions in ovenproof dishes or foil trays. Simply reduce the cooking time slightly when re-heating.

Tips for freezing

Allow the cannelloni to cool at room temperature before covering well with cling film, then freeze. Always freeze on the day you make it. Defrost uncooked cannelloni in the fridge overnight, then cook as per recipe. To cook from frozen: heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3 and cook, covered with foil, for 1 hr 25 mins. Remove foil, turn oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and cook, uncovered, for 20-30 mins.

Per serving

711 kcalories, protein 30g, carbohydrate 44g, fat 47 g, saturated fat 27g, fibre 5g, sugar 15g, salt 1.59 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, June 2010.

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Latest comments and suggestions

Results 1-20

  • Binder photo Krissy

    18 May 2010

    Krissy rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    This was lovely! Bit tricky piping the mixture into the cannelloni....we used a freezer bag with the corner snipped off...quite fun to do though!

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  • Binder photo Mmmm food..

    20 May 2010

    Mmmm food.. rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    This was delicious!! I made it using fresh lasagne sheets, rather than ready-made cannelloni because they had none at my local supermarket. I simply spooned a line of the spinach mixture onto one end of the sheet then rolled it up - easy!

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  • Binder photo DeborahHartup

    20 May 2010

    DeborahHartup commented on this recipe

    This was so good!!! My husband took the leftovers to work and bragged to all his friends about his amazing dinner! My trick for piping the mixture is to get a funnel and a chop stick, put the funnel in the top of the cannelloni and put a few spoons of mixture in, then pump the chop stick till it gets full up and then tip the cannelloni over in to the dish!

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  • Binder photo irritable

    23 May 2010

    irritable rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    Tasted excellent. I served with a few roasted sweet potato chips and the recommended green avocado salad and it was definitely a success. I also improvised with a wooden spoon (and my finger!) to fill the canneloni - but the reason for only 4 stars - its not worth the effort. Totally agree with other comment - will use lasagne sheets in future.

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  • Binder photo Jackie

    24 May 2010

    Jackie rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I made this for myself and my daughter. Once you had everything prepared it was so easy to make. I used an icing bag with the largest nozzle to fill the tubes and it seemed to work really well. It was soooo delicious and tasty.

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  • Binder photo LTW

    24 May 2010

    LTW rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    Very nice indeed - give it plenty of seasoning though. I would also recommend removing the stalks off the spinach and mashing the spinach filling up to make it a smooth as possible. Just my suggestions as this was very popular with my Wife and I and also our two sons (6 and 4).

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  • Binder photo Myra's

    30 May 2010

    Myra's rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Really nice, a family hit!

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  • Binder photo Gillian

    31 May 2010

    Gillian rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Really tasty. We had this for supper when friends visited last night & it proved to be a great hit. Agree wth the other comments about making sure that the filling is well seasoned & filling the pasta tubes can be tricky but well worth it. Served with a simple mixed salad it made a very substantial meal.

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  • Binder photo rene_555

    09 June 2010

    rene_555 rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    Easy peasy to make and tasted delicious! We halved the ingredients as there were only 2 of us and this worked fine. The only thing we would do differently if we were to cook this again would be to add more tomato as we found ours wasn't as tomatoey as we would have liked. Instead of copping the spinach we put it into a food processor which made the spinach pieces much finer and more like authentic spinach and ricotta than roughly chopping it. Needed a lot of seasoning to ensure the tomato suace wasn't too sweet, but all in all a really good recipie!

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  • Binder photo rene_555

    09 June 2010

    rene_555 commented on this recipe

    Sorry error in rating, I did rate this as 4 but it appears as a 3 star?

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  • Binder photo Emma

    21 June 2010

    Emma rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    A tasty meal, but definitely a fiddly job filling the tubes. I think my filling was too thick because the freezer bag kept splitting every time I tried to pipe the mixture. Ended up just using my fingers!

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  • Binder photo claire1173

    05 July 2010

    claire1173 commented on this recipe

    Do you mean 3 teaspoons of sugar for the sauce?

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  • Binder photo Spela

    06 July 2010

    Spela rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Delicious, used icing bag to fill the tubes and worked fine. Will definitely be making this again.

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  • Binder photo sausage55

    16 August 2010

    sausage55 rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • Binder photo chloe

    20 August 2010

    chloe commented on this recipe

    Very tasty...I added sliced olives to the tomato sauce and was easy to make as I used fresh lasagne sheets. Will definitely make again.

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  • Binder photo Heidi

    30 August 2010

    Heidi rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    My husband took leftovers to work - I got a lunchtime text crowing about how great it was. 6 for taste but lost marks for effort. I will def. try the spinach in the food prcessor trick as i ressorted to using my fingers to stuff the tubes. Also now invested in a larger colander as it took me forever to wilt the spinach!!!

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  • Binder photo sweetsparrow

    16 October 2010

    sweetsparrow rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    This was worth the effort! I used a 1kg bag frozen chopped spinach, defrosted in microwave and pressed in a sieve to get rid of the water so no chopping or wilting needed, much easier. Using a thick freezer bag to pipe the filling worked well, my husband helped me and found it quite easy! I filled 6 x small foil takeaway-type cartons and 2 medium sized ovenproof dishes, looking forward to getting it out of the freezer already!

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  • Binder photo purplestar

    11 November 2010

    purplestar rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Lovely recipe - a favourite in our house and on my mum's request list when she visits. Wonderful tip from sweetsparrow re frozen spinach - will definitely try this next time!

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  • Binder photo Mary Chappell

    31 December 2010

    Mary Chappell commented on this recipe

    Can anyone say how to make the fresh lasagne sheets roll up without splitting? Maybe I should soak them in hot water for a few minutes? Thanks

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  • Binder photo sue

    07 January 2011

    sue rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    Easy to make also used fresh lasagne sheets which are much easier than cannelloni tubes and halved the recipe for 4 hungry adults. added a bit of dried red chilli to the tomatoes for alittle kick, then topped with grated cheese.

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Difficulty and servings

Easy

Makes 10 servings

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 50 mins

Cook time

Cook 40 mins

Vegetarian Freezable

Vegetarian

Ingredients

FOR THE TOMATO SAUCE

FOR THE TOPPING

  • 2 x 250g tubs mascarpone
  • 3 tbsp milk
  • 85g Parmesan (or vegetarian alternative), grated
  • 2 x 125g balls mozzarella , sliced

FOR THE FILLING

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Per serving

711 kcalories, protein 30g, carbohydrate 44g, fat 47 g, saturated fat 27g, fibre 5g, sugar 15g, salt 1.59 g

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