From ilyce@tpg.com.au Tue Jun 12 14:44:22 2001 Date: 9 Jun 2001 15:10:29 GMT From: ilyce Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes Subject: Ricotta and Spinach Cannelloni Followup-To: rec.food.cooking Ricotta and Spinach Cannelloni Pasta is a fabulous food coming as it does in all shapes, colours and sizes. Made with either wheat or semolina, it is high in energy derived from carbohydrate and it's non-fattening. That is, until you start adding things to it. This recipe uses two light but tasty sauces with cannelloni. The tubular pasta is filled with a ricotta and spinach stuffing then simmered in tomato sauce before being topped with a light Bechamel. Serves 4 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1/2 medium onion finely chopped 3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed 300 ml tomato puree 1/2 tsp sugar 1 bunch spinach or 100 g cooked 250 g ricotta cheese 25 g Parmesan 20 g butter or margarine 30 g cornflour 300 ml reduced fat milk 1/4 tsp ground mace or nutmeg 1 cup chopped parsley 10 cannelloni tubes (the kind that don't need precooking) Salt and Pepper to season Simmer chopped onion and crushed garlic in 1 Tbsp oil until softened. Stir in tomato pulp or puree (not the concentrated paste) and sugar. Remove from heat. Pour into baking dish and spread over surface. Wash spinach and drain. Remove stalks. Chop leaves. In the pan that cooked the sauce (washing unnecessary), put remaining oil and cook spinach for two minutes. Transfer to mixing bowl and allow to cool a little then stir in ricotta, Parmesan, grating of mace or nutmeg, and white pepper. Leave mixture to cool. In same pan (again, washing unnecessary), melt butter or margarine. Add cornflour and cook one minute on low heat. Slowly add milk, stirring constantly until sauce thickens. Add chopped parsley. Season to taste. With spoon or piping bag, fill cannelloni tubes with spinach and cheese mixture. Place the filled tubes on the tomato sauce in a baking dish. Once all are filled and in the dish, cover the tubes with the parsley Bechamel sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil and bake for at least 45 minutes at 180 C, removing foil twenty minutes before end of cooking time, to allow to brown. Leftover potential: Good. May be reheated or refreshed by adding more sauce topping. All of Ilyce's Recipes go to rwbf@Topica.com (list name is in lower case) rwbf-subscribe@topica.com (list name is in lower case) -- ~~Rec.food.recipes is moderated; only recipes and recipe requests are accepted for posting. Please read the FAQ posted each week. Please send recipes, requests, questions or comments to recipes@rt66.com Please allow several days for your submission to appear.