Cannelloni with herbed beef and béchamel

Some weekends provide the opportunity for cookery projects. Cannelloni has been on my “must try” list for many years, and I ran into a quality package of the tubes just last week so I had to give it a whirl. I wanted a meaty dish, so I chose a hybrid combination of recipes I found through my research: I use ricotta-beef to stuff the tubes and top everything with a béchamel sauce. The addition of fresh (or dry) rosemary, parsley and nutmeg to the various sauces makes this dish a showstopper.

Serves 5

Ingredients:

500g fresh ricotta

1 package dry cannelloni tubes

500g minced beef (or beef-pork mix)

1/3 cup grated parmesan

2 cans chopped tomatoes

2 garlic cloves

1 egg

1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped

1 bay leaf

2 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

Fresh pepper

1 onion, minced

Nutmeg, freshly grated

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 recipe for Bechamel (you require 3 cups)

1/2 cup mixed grated cheese (mozzarella etc)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Make tomato sauce by cooking onion in some olive oil until softened, then adding 1 teaspoon salt, minced garlic and bay leaf. Allow to simmer on low while you prepare the other ingredients.

Make beef filling by searing minced beef in a heavy bottomed skillet on medium heat. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt and allow to brown. Flip beef and brown on other side, then use back of wooden spoon to break it up. Add minced rosemary and allow to soften. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Set a large pot of salted water on to boil (enough to cover Cannelloni tubes).

While beef is cooling make ricotta filling: add the ricotta, egg, a few hits of fresh nutmeg and parmesan to a bowl. Add minced parsley and salt. Use a spatula to incorporate all ingredients.

Now add cooled beef to ricotta mixture.

Add tubes to boiling water and cook for 4 minutes. Drain tubes and allow to cool.

In a large casserole dish, place a thick layer of your tomato sauce. Stuff tubes with ricotta-beef mixture and place on top of tomato sauce layer in casserole dish.

Make bechamel. Once bechamel is ready, spoon it over cannelloni tubes.

Cover with foil and bake in oven for 25 minutes.

Uncover the casserole dish and sprinkle with grated cheese mix. Bake until browned on top.

Enjoy!