Cheese Cannelloni in meat sauce

My parents were here visiting for a couple of months and have just left to go back to the states. Naturally I had to make a bon voyage – make that buon viaggio – dinner and, just as naturally, it had to be something stick-to-the-ribs, meaty, cheesy and tomatoey (Is that a word? I thought not.). So, I decided to make ricotta-spinach cannelloni in meat sauce. It’s very filling and ruined my diet for the day but, I had to give them a proper send-off, now didn’t I?

I used fresh pasta, but you can also buy the cannelloni or manicotti tubes. For the sauce I used both ground meat and pancetta which is easily found here already chopped up and ready to use. If you can’t find real pancetta, try to find salt pork. Yes, you could use bacon, but it’s smoked and pancetta is not, so the flavor will be different.

Ingredients

4 cups tomato puree
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon fresh basil
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
1 cup cooked spinach (about 1 lb fresh) – squeezed and diced
1 lb ground meat
3 cloves garlic, chopped
salt
3.5 ounces pancetta (salt pork), diced
2 ½ cups ricotta
2 eggs
¼ cup parmigiano (plus)
½ cup mozzarella sliced thin or shredded
Fresh pasta rolled thin and cut in sheets of about 6”x9”

Directions

With a meaty sauce like this, it’s always best to start early and let it simmer for a while so start it about 2 hours before you want to start rolling your cannelloni.

In a large saucepan or deep frying pan, sauté the pancetta (or salt pork) in about a teaspoon of olive oil until it starts to get crisp. Add the garlic and allow to cook for another 2 minutes, then add the ground meat and cook, stirring occasionally. Once the ground meat is browned, add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, basil and parsley. Once it starts to simmer, lower the heat and allow it to cook for about an hour. Taste for salt and add if necessary. The pancetta already gives it a bit of salt, so be sure to taste first before adding. Now let it cool for about 15 minutes before starting your cannelloni.

If you are using hard pasta or thick noodles you will need to boil the noodles first. If you are using fresh pasta that is rolled very thin, you won’t need to. (I often use Giovanni Rana ultra thin fresh pasta. It doesn’t need to be cooked and really, with a baby, who has time to make fresh pasta?).

Heat the oven to 320.

Mix the ricotta, eggs, spinach and parmigiano cheese together.

Put a ladle full of sauce in the bottom of the pan, trying to get as little meat in there as possible.

Now on each sheet of pasta, spread a layer of the ricotta mixture. Don’t go all the way to the edges because it will spread as you roll them. You can also just put a blob down the center and roll it all the way up if you like, but then you have a hunk of pasta and a blob of cheese. They still taste good though.

As you roll each one up, place seam side down in the lasagna pan, putting them as close together as possible. Once the pan is full, ladle all of the sauce over the top, then sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and some more parmigiano (that’s why I added “plus” in the ingredients), cover in tin foil and pop in the oven for an hour, removing the aluminum foil after 30 minutes.

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