Homemade cannelloni is what you might call a labor of love, but it is certainly worth the effort. Cannelloni is a baked pasta dish, similar in ingredients to a traditional lasagna, but the meaty filling is stuffed into individually rolled sheets of tender pasta and then topped with tomato sauce and cheese before baking. This recipe for Cannelloni all Biagio is courtesy of Chef Biagio Longo at Mami Camilla Cooking School and is a delicious southern Italian version of the classic. Making a baking sheet filled with cannelloni would be a fun, hands-on activity with friends at a dinner party, or even a fun thing to get the kids involved with over the weekend.
Cutting the dough into rectangles
Flouring the dough
Fillling and rolling the cannelloni
Filled and rolled cannelloni
A pan filled with cannelloni ready to be baked
(To view this recipe, click on the blue blog post title above)
Cannelloni alla Biagio
Ingredients:
- * Recipe Courtesy of Mami Camilla Cooking School*
- CANNELLONI PASTA
- 500 grams durum wheat semolina flour, plus extra
- 5 eggs
- Water
- FILLING
- 500 grams ground beef
- Salt
- Finely ground black pepper
- 400 grams ricotta cheese
- 250 grams mozzarella
- ½ cup Pecorino cheese, grated
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- 2 eggs
- Béchamel sauce (see below recipe)
- BÉCHAMEL SAUCE
- 25 grams butter
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 200 milliliters milk
- Salt
- Finely ground pepper
- Dash of ground nutmeg
- TOMATO SAUCE
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 small yellow onion, chopped
- 1200 grams canned Italian peeled tomatoes, crushed
- 1 tablespoon
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ¼ cup fresh basil, chopped
Directions:
- For the pasta:
- On flat work surface, mix semolina flours; form a well in the middle. Put eggs in center. Mix with hands, gradually taking small portions of four into the center to combine with eggs. Continue to work dough until it’s well blended and compact.
- Cut dough in 2 pieces; form squares about width of pasta machine; dust well with extra semolina flour. Feed dough through pasta machine set on number 10; fold in half; repeat. Dust with flour, feed dough through machine set on number 7. Dough will begin to thin and lengthen. Dust with flour; arrange dough in ribbon folds; feed into machine on number 5.
- Cut into 10-centimeter strips. Repeat process until all pasta has been cut. Cook pasta in salted boiling water until al dente. Remove pasta from pot; dip in bowl of cold water to stop cooking; place on oiled wax paper.
- For the filling:
- In a large frying pan, brown meat over medium/high heat until completely cooked; draining the excess fat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat. Let cool 10 minutes.
- Add ricotta, mozzarella, Pecorino, Parmesan and eggs; mix well; set aside. Add enough béchamel sauce to make a creamy filling. Reserve remaining sauce; set aside.
- For the bechamel sauce:
- In a saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Add the flour; stir. Add milk, a little at a time, stirring continuously until all ingredients are combined and smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste and dash of nutmeg; stir until creamy.
- For the tomato sauce:
- In saucepan heat oil over high heat until hot, about 1 minute. Add garlic and onion; sauté 1 minute. Add crushed tomatoes, basil, salt and sugar; stir well. Cook over medium heat 25 minutes.
- For cannelloni construction:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Working on oiled wax paper, lay out strips of pasta. Using a pastry bag, pipe 8 centimeters of filling along pasta strip. Roll up pasta around filling. Continue until all pasta and filling has been used.
- Spread a few spoons of tomato sauce on bottom of baking dish. Arrange cannelloni in dish; top with tomato sauce. Drizzle with a little additional béchamel sauce and Parmesan cheese. Bake 30 minutes, or until cannelloni is hot. Serve immediately .
Tagged: baked pasta, bechamel sauce, cannelloni, Cannelloni alla Biagio, cheese, culinary school, externship, ground meat, Italy, Mami Camilla cooking school, Sorrento, tomato sauce
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