Spinach Ricotta Cannelloni
Juicy and flavorful spinach and ricotta filling stuffed inside cannelloni pasta, topped with tomato-basil sauce and lots of cheese.
Ingredients
For the filling
- 250 grams frozen, chopped spinach, thawed
- 2 cups ricotta
- ⅛ tsp nutmeg powder
- ⅓ cup grated parmesan
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella
- 3-4 cloves of garlic
- 1 egg, optional
- ½ tsp black pepper powder
- ½ tsp salt, or as needed
For the sauce
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 4-5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 2 cups tomato pureed
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp dried basil leaves
- ½ tsp black pepper powder, or as required
- salt, as required
For the cannelloni pasta
- 250 grams dried cannelloni pasta
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella
- basil leaves (dried or fresh), for garnish
Instructions
To prepare the filling
- Drain the excess water from the spinach and in a mixing bowl, add all the ingredients mentioned under 'For the filling' and mix well. Keep it aside until further use.
To prepare the sauce
- In a pan on medium heat, add olive oil. Add the garlic and onions and cook until translucent.
- Add the tomato paste nd mix with the cooked onions and garlic.
- Add the tomato puree and stir it so that there are no lumps.
- The puree need not be cooked. Add water, salt and pepper. Mix well. Cook on low heat for 8-10 minutes.
- The sauce would have thickened by now. Add fresh or dried basil leaves and take it off the heat. Set aside to cool down.
To prepare the cannelloni pasta
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. In a baking pan, spread some sauce as the base.
- Transfer the prepared filling into a piping bag or a ziplock bag and pipe the cannelloni tubes with the filling. Place the filled tubes in the baking dish.
- Pour sauce over the pasta and make sure all the tubes are covered with sauce. Cover the baking pan with a foil and bake for 25 minutes.
- Remove the foil and top the pasta with some shredded mozzarella cheese. Return to the oven and continue to bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and golden brown spots appear.
- Garnish with basil leaves and serve hot.
Notes
- If you do not find frozen spinach, then use 500 grams fresh spinach. Cut it and wilt it with some oil o remove excess water.
- I did not use frozen spinach and also i did not wilt them in oil. I blanched the spinach, cut them and removed all excess moisture and then added it to the other ingredients. I did this because I like my spinach to be bright green in color.
- As far as the spinach goes, you can use any of the above mentioned method for your recipe.
- For the filling, add salt as required. Keep in mind that the cheese will have some salt content too.
- Using egg is optional and can be avoided if not needed. It is just used to bind the filling.
- Do not use ricotta cheese that is very dry. Let it have some moisture too. If you feel that the filling is very dry, then add an egg.
- For the sauce, you can even add crushed tomatoes that you get in tins. I added store bought tomato puree which would be the preferred choice because it will give the right consistency required for the sauce.
- If you are using freshly prepared tomato puree, then I would suggest you to cook it and reduce it before adding it in the sauce.
- Since we are using store bought tomato puree, the sauce need not cook for a very long time. It just need to thicken a bit before using.
- According to the availability, you can add fresh or dry basil leaves.
- For filling the pasta tubes, use a bigger nozzle for the piping bags.
- Fill the pasta tubes halfway through on one side and repeat on the other side.
- If you do not have a piping bag or a ziplock bag, then use a knife to fill the pasta tubes. This is time consuming though.
- If you have a larger baking dish to accommodate all the pasta tubes then use that. I baked the pasta in batches.
- Pour enough sauce over the pasta to bake it. Do not let the pasta dry out.
- You can top the pasta with how much ever cheese you want to and then bake it.