Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni
In the late eighties I made my initial foray into the food business. I worked long hours for little financial reward, but I gained a wealth of experience money could never have bought. One enormous positive aspect of this time was sharing my commercial kitchen with Nancy, a hard working Calabrian woman who brought with her years of experience cooking for her large extended family and seasonal workers on the family market garden. She cooked simply and instinctively. Nancy taught me the secret to making traditional robust rustic Italian food.
These ricotta and spinach filled cannelloni are light, savoury and nutritious. The dish can be constructed in its entirety the day before needed and if you have passata to hand, its very quick to prepare. Leftovers microwave exceptionally well.
I know I have already lauded the quality of “Farabella” gluten free pasta elsewhere on my blog, but in case you missed out, I recommend you look out for this exceptional gluten free product, you won’t be sorry!
500g fresh ricotta cheese
2 eggs
60g finely grated Parmesan cheese
180g fresh young spinach leaves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
Generous grinding of black pepper
12 cannelloni tubes cooked (I used Farabella gluten free cannelloni)
1 1/2 cups tomato passata* well seasoned
60g fiore de latte finely grated
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
Thoroughly was the spinach then drain in a colander but do not spin dry. Put the wet leaves in a pan but do not add any more water. Bring the pot to the boil and as soon as the spinach has collapsed, remove from the heat. Drain the spinach then refresh in cold water to arrest the cooking process. Squeeze as much water as you can from the spinach then roughly chop.
In a medium bowl roughly mash the ricotta with a fork. Add the eggs, spinach, Parmesan, nutmeg and pepper. Mix to thoroughly combine. Set the ricotta mixture aside in the fridge until you are ready to stuff the pasta tubes.
Cook the cannelloni tubes according to the manufacturers instructions. Drain when done, then keep in a bowl of cold water until you are ready to fill the tubes.
Lightly oil an ovenproof dish big that is enough to accomodate the cannelloni in a single layer. Spoon a thin layer of passata over the base of the dish.
Fill the cannelloni tubes with the spinach and ricotta filling. The easiest way to do this is to use a piping bag with a plain nozzle. Alternatively use a teaspoon. Fill the tubes firmly ensuring there are no air pockets. Arrange the cannelloni into the sauce smeared dish in a single layer then top with the remaining sauce.
Scatter the shredded fiore de latte over the passata then top with a light scattering of dried basil and freshly ground black pepper.
Bake in a moderate oven 180C for 45 minutes.
Serves 4 as a light meal or dinner for two healthy appetites
*An easy alternative to passata is to roughly chop 1kg ripe juicy full flavoured tomatoes and boil them down to a pulp. Season to taste with salt, pepper and a little sugar the stir through 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
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11 comments on “Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni”
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Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Please Pass the Recipe 
One of our family favourites! They are gorgeous!! I usually make mine with thin crepes when I have the time and the will. And when I don’t, I use the tubes. I too cater occasionally, mostly lunches and small parties. I agree… hard work and not so financially rewarding.
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We love crepes stuffed with this mixture too, though I haven’t made it for a looong time. Catering is hard work on all levels, most customer have tiny budgets for magnificent food!
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one of those dishes that makes you want to just like the monitor already 😉
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I meant to write “lick” but like works too kind of …
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Haha! Yes it looks good, but tastes even better!
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Looks delicious. I’m printing up this recipe for my daughter in law who is a really good cook. She will appreciate it and might even invite me to taste test it.
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Thanks, and fingers crossed you get an invite.
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Yum!! This looks sooo good! I love cannelloni! Got it bookmarked. 🙂
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Thank you, it was delicious, I hope you enjoy the cannelloni as much as we did
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You would have to use far less cheese and masses more spinach if you decided to make my recipe with feta. Thanks for commenting
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My fav pasta casseroll..
i like to stuffed it with feta cheese too…
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