Meat & Spinach Cannelloni

Ingredients:

• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 rib celery
• 1 28 oz can crushed tomato
• 3 cups broth, matching protein or choice of preference
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp chili flakes
• 1 lb ground meat, chef's choice is beef but we used turkey
• 250 grams frozen spinach. If it helps, that came out to five "spinach portions" for us
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cups mozzarella or ricotta
• 220 grams cannelloni noodles, about 1 box
• Parsley for garnish, optional
• Little bit of cooking oil

Special Tools: 

• Piping bag or ziplock sandwich bag
• Tinfoil
• Immersion blender

Directions:

1. Thaw, then squeeze water from 250 grams frozen spinach and set aside
2. Mince 4 cloves garlic, dice 1 onion, chop 1 carrot and 1 rib celery. If using mozzarella, grate 2 cups
3. For the sauce, in a large saucepan heat a little cooking oil over medium-high heat
4. Once heated, add 1/2 of your diced garlic and onion and cook for 2 min, then add all your carrots and celery and cook another 5 min
5. To saucepan, add 1 can crushed tomatoes, 2 cups stock, 1/2 tsp each of thyme, oregano, salt, and pepper, and 1/4 tsp chili flakes
6. Bring to a simmer, then lower heat to medium, cover and let simmer another 10 min
7. With immersion blender, blitz until smooth
8. For the meat filling, heat a little cooking oil in a large frying pan over high
9. Once heated, add remaining garlic and onion and cook for 2 min
10. Add ground meat and cook through
11. Stir in thawed and drained spinach, add 1 cup broth, 1/2 tsp pepper, and 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, and 1 cup of your prepared cannelloni sauce
12. Remove and let cool
13. Preheat oven to 350 F
14. Once cooled, transfer meat blend to piping bag. Can cut off a corner on a ziplock sandwich bag for a makeshift one
15. Stand up cannelloni noodles in casserole dish, then pipe filling in, distributing evenly between noodles
16. Add a thin layer of cannelloni sauce to bottom of casserole dish, lay noodles down making sure the sauce covers the bottom of the dish
17. Top with the rest of the sauce and 2 cups cheese
18. Cover dish in tinfoil, bake for 25 min. Then remove foil and bake another 10 min

Tips:

The biggest hurdle we ran into was that the noodles began to crack before we finished filling them. The source said that we should let the filling cool slightly before piping it in, which I took to mean we should let it cool enough that it could be handled safely. But I think the heat was still enough to damage the noodles. If I were to do it again, I'd let it cool a good deal more, maybe even chill it in the fridge since it's going to heat up in the oven again anyway.

The source says you should use a little less than a box of noodles, but that leaves you with an awkward amount of noodles. I say just use the whole thing, it fit perfectly into the baking dish. Make a bit more filling if you're worried about that.

Source used 2 cups chicken stock for the sauce and a beef bouillon cube for the filling. We just used 3 cups of uniform stock. Probably made the filling a bit more moist, but it didn't seem like a problem.

Source called for mozzarella, which felt weird so I used a mozz/ricotta blend and it worked fine

Yield: A casserole dish worth of pasta

Source: https://www.recipetineats.com/spinach-beef-cannelloni-manicotti/

Description:

Me and my brother made this for my mother's birthday on the 12th. It was a significant one, as she turned sixty, it was on the night of the Flower Moon, and it's the year of the Wood Snake, which she is.

When she was living with us, I learned that her favourite food at one time had been cannelloni, which was intriguing because I'd never had it. At this time in her life, she enjoys many dishes, but this is still one she likes a lot.

This is one of those ugly foods that taste great but are difficult to photograph in an appetizing way, like lasagna