Spinach Cannelloni with a Rosé Sauce

I made some very successful cannelloni the other night (we were duelling over the leftovers) and have decided to share it all with you.

The instructions to this meal has no quantities included as a) I whipped this up from my imagination using leftovers, b) food items sold in Spain are often sold in packages that are of different sizes then in North America, and c) I was limited by the size and amount of cannelloni pasta I purchased and I think this may be the case with everyone. In case you really need some guidance I put my very rough measurements in italics.

Cannelloni:

• Cannelloni pasta (1 box of precooked pasta, 12 sheets)
• Ricotta cheese (1 package)
• Chopped and cooked Spinach (10-12 pellets of ultra frozen chopped spinach that I then microwaved)
• Salt (one pinch)
• Grated cheese of choice

Sauce:

• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• Extra virgin olive oil (a splash)
• Cooking cream (1/3 of a small box)
• Plain tomato sauce (1/3 of a 550g jar)
• Spices: Oregano, tarragon, rosemary, basil, etc…

Instructions:

Sauce:

1. Mince the garlic and lightly fry them in a bit of olive oil for a few minutes ensuring that they don’t burn.
2. Add the tomato sauce and let it cook for a bit
3. Reduce the heat and stir in the cream until you get a nice rosé
4. Add spices to taste
5. Let simmer so that the flavours combine but ensure the stir every once in a while so the sauce doesn’t burn.

Cannelloni:

1. Prepare the pasta according to the instructions
2. In a large enough bowl mix ricotta cheese with the spinach
3. Add a bit of salt to the mixture
4. When the pasta is ready fill it with the mixture and place the cannelloni along a deep enough baking dish.
5. Cover the cannelloni with the sauce and bake at around 210°C for around 20 minutes.
6. Sprinkle with cheese and bake or brown for another 5 minutes.

Extra:

I had some left over mixture and a free space in the baking pan. Therefore before I covered the cannelloni with the sauce I sliced up some pear tomatoes and spread that out over the empty space in the baking pan. Then I covered the tomatoes with the ricotta-spinach mixture and then proceeded to cover it all with the sauce and baked it. I think it added an extra dimension to the dish and was really good.

Enjoy!

K