CANNELLONI FLORENTINE

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Virginia Owen
5 years ago
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1 CANNELLONI FLORENTINE Makes 8-10 cannelloni By Dennis W. Viau; modified from several sources. Here s the thing with Spinach: Most people don t like cooked spinach, but you can easily incorporate it in foods that people will love to eat. Here is an excellent way to sneak spinach into the meals your kids eat. Ingredients: For the pasta (should you choose to make your own) 1 : 2 large eggs ½ cup (70g) all-purpose flour ½ cup (82g) pasta flour (durum wheat semolina) (or 1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour) ¼ teaspoon salt Extra flour for dusting 1 Or purchase dry manicotti tubes (see Notes at end) For the filling: 8 ounces (227g) raw spinach; thoroughly washed 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 tablespoon butter 1 small onion (or ½ medium); finely chopped 1 to 2 cloves garlic; minced or crushed 6 ounces (170g) prosciutto; finely chopped 10 ounces (283g) ricotta cheese 3 ounces (85g) freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese 1 egg c teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg c teaspoon freshly ground black pepper For the sauce (if you want to make your own) 2 : 2 tablespoons olive oil ¼ onion; finely chopped 2 cloves fresh garlic; minced or crushed 1 28-ounce (794g) can Roma style tomatoes 4 basil leaves 1 tablespoon chopped parsley 2 Or 1 32-ounce jar marinara sauce 1 Directions: If you choose to make your own pasta, combine the eggs, flour, and salt in a bowl and mix until stiff enough to knead. Turn contents out onto the counter and knead until smooth, dusting with flour as needed to reduce stickiness. Wrap with plastic and set aside for at least one hour. If storing longer, store in the refrigerator. If you choose to make your own sauce, prepare it in advance by heating the oil in a skillet. Add the onion and sauté over medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook an additional minute. Add the remaining sauce ingredients and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes, partially covered, stirring often. Set aside. For the filling: Put about ¼ cup (60ml) water in a large skillet and heat to boiling. Add the fresh spinach

and cover. Reduce heat to low and cook until wilted, about 3 minutes. Drain the spinach in a colander and allow to cool. When cool enough to handle, squeeze out excess moisture and then chop.

2 and cover. Reduce heat to low and cook until wilted, about 3 minutes. Drain the spinach in a colander and allow to cool. When cool enough to handle, squeeze out excess moisture and then chop. Place the olive oil and butter in the skillet. Sauté the chopped onions until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook an additional minute. Remove from the heat to cool and the place in a large bowl with the chopped prosciutto, spinach, cheeses, egg, nutmeg, and pepper. Combine. Roll the pasta dough through a pasta machine to form sheets about 6 inches (15cm) wide. Cut into 4 inch (10cm) sections. Heat about 6 cups (1.4l) of water in a large skillet until boiling. Boil the pasta sheets about a minute (two at a time if the skillet is large enough) and then use a slotted spoon or strainer to move the cooked pasta to a bowl of cold water. The pasta should be under-cooked, as it will cook further in the oven. Continue until all sheets are cooked. (Or cook the dry cannelloni shells according to package directions.) Place a pasta sheet on a flat surface. Put some filling on each sheet and spread across the width of the sheet. Roll up, overlapping the ends. (Or fill cooked cannelloni tubes.) (To determine how much to put on each sheet: If you have 8 sheets of pasta, divide your filling into 8 parts. 10 sheets, 10 parts. Etc.) Coat the bottom of a 9x12-inch (23x30cm) baking dish with a little marinara sauce. Arrange cannelloni in the dish, seam side down. Spoon additional sauce on top, reserving some sauce for garnish. Cover with foil and bake in a 400 F (205 C) oven 25 to 30 minutes. Serve hot, garnished with additional sauce. 2 1 STEP-BY-STEP The standard ingredients for homemade pasta are flour, eggs, and salt. Some markets sell pasta flour. I use half all-purpose flour and half pasta flour. The amount depends on the size of the eggs. For large eggs I generally use ½ cup (70 to 80 grams) of flour per egg.

The best way to knead it is to use the heal of your hand to smear the dough into the counter, gathering it into a ball and smearing again. Continue until the dough is smooth.

3 2 3 Although many pasta recipes tell you to put the flour on the counter and then mix the egg into it, I prefer to work in a bowl. It s less messy. Combine the flour(s), eggs, and salt until dry enough to knead. 3 Knead the dough until smooth. It will be stiff. The best way to knead it is to use the heal of your hand to smear the dough into the counter, gathering it into a ball and smearing again. Continue until the dough is smooth. Dust with additional flour as need to prevent sticking. Wrap the dough in plastic and set aside. If you plan to store for more than an hour, wrap and place in the refrigerator. Use the same day. The yolk in the dough will oxidize after about 24 hours and will turn from the golden hue you see above to a sickly shade of gray/green. If you wish to store it for long periods, such as in the freezer, the dough can be sealed in vacuum bags with a vacuum sealer to remove all the aid, in which case no oxidation will take place. You can make large batches of dough in this way and store for later use.

5 Pour about ¼ cup (60ml) water into a large skillet and heat to boiling.

4 4 4 Assemble your ingredients for the filling. If you don t have whole nutmeg to grate (that item in the center front) you can substitute with ground nutmeg from your spice rack. 5 Pour about ¼ cup (60ml) water into a large skillet and heat to boiling. Add the spinach, cover, reduce the heat to low, and cook until wilted, about 3 minutes. Pour spinach into a colander to drain and allow to cool. When cool enough the handle, use your hands to squeeze excess moisture out of the cooked spinach. Then chop the spinach coarsely. Set aside.

6 5 Heat the oil and butter in the skillet. Add the chopped onion.

Add the minced garlic and cook for an additional minute, then remove the pan from

7 Combine the cheeses, egg, prosciutto, onion, garlic, and spinach in a large bowl

5 6 5 Heat the oil and butter in the skillet. Add the chopped onion. Sauté until translucent (about 4 minutes). Add the minced garlic and cook for an additional minute, then remove the pan from the heat. 7 Combine the cheeses, egg, prosciutto, onion, garlic, and spinach in a large bowl with the nutmeg and pepper. 8 Roll the pasta dough through a pasta machine (or use a rolling pin) until thin. On my machine I roll it to a number 5 thickness. The thickness is about the same as a piece of dry lasagna.

There is no need to salt this water because there is salt in the pasta.

6 9 6 Cut the pasta sheets into 4-inch lengths (10cm). If you have a fluted cutter you can trim the edges to improve their appearance. 10 Heat water in a skillet to boiling. There is no need to salt this water because there is salt in the pasta. Place one or two sheets in the water and cook for only about a minute. The pasta will be slightly under-cooked, but it will cook more when it is baked in the oven. Have a bowl of cold water nearby. If you purchase dry manicotti tubes, cook according to package directions.

12 Place 2 to 3 heaping tablespoons of the filling on a pasta sheet, enough to allow the pasta to be rolled with the ends

7 11 7 Use a slotted spoon or spiderweb strainer to remove the sheets from the boiling water and place them in a bowl of cold water to halt the cooking. When cool, place on a flat surface for filling and rolling. 12 Place 2 to 3 heaping tablespoons of the filling on a pasta sheet, enough to allow the pasta to be rolled with the ends overlapping. Divide your filling according to the number of cannelloni sheets you have, within reason don t buy three dozen manicotti tubes and hope to divide this much filling between them all.

Coat the bottom of a 9x12-inch baking dish with a little of the sauce. Arrange the cannelloni in the dish with a little sauce between them to help prevent sticking.

8 8 Roll up the pasta to encase the filling. There is no need to wet and seal the overlapping ends. When you place the cannelloni in the baking dish, set them with the seam down, which will hold the ends together (and hide any ragged edges). Coat the bottom of a 9x12-inch baking dish with a little of the sauce. Arrange the cannelloni in the dish with a little sauce between them to help prevent sticking. You can spoon additional sauce over the top, saving some of the sauce for garnish when serving. I prefer to bake them uncovered with sauce and then garnish with sauce just before serving (see next picture). Cover the baking dish with foil and bake in a 400 F (200 C) oven 25 to 30 minutes.

9 Serve garnished with a little additional sauce. There is no need to have extra cheese on the side, as this cannelloni has plenty of cheese in the filling.

9 9 Serve garnished with a little additional sauce. There is no need to have extra cheese on the side, as this cannelloni has plenty of cheese in the filling. Conclusion: I don t know whether to describe this dish as easy or difficult. I ve made pasta dough so many times, this just seems like something I could do in my sleep. If it is difficult, it certainly is worth the effort. Friends who eat my cannelloni tell me they would pay good money to order this in a restaurant. Serve with a chilled salad on the side in summertime, or with cooked green vegetables, such a broccoli or green beans, in winter. This can either be a fancy dish to serve on special occasions or a simple dish when you need to pamper yourself with comfort food. Notes: When boiling pasta, should you add salt to the water or not? There are some cooks who would take up arms to settle this question. Simply put: Yes and no. When you purchase dry pasta there is no salt in it. The pasta absorbs water as it cooks. You therefore add salt to the water when cooking dry pasta because the pasta will absorb some of the salt, enhancing its flavor a little. When you cook fresh pasta, it already contains almost all of the moisture it needs. You are only cooking the eggs and flour. In the 2 to 3 minutes it takes to cook fresh pasta very little water will be absorbed; therefore, it would be pointless to put salt in the water. Rather, you put salt in the pasta dough when you prepare it. Cannelloni? Manicotti? Cannoli? There is a lot of confusion out there. In the USA manicotti is a dry pasta tube. It is about 4 inches long and 1 inch wide. Typically it is boiled, filled, then baked. Cannelloni is a flat sheet of cooked pasta that is wrapped around filling and baked, or it a sheet rolled into a tube, dried, then boiled, stuffed, and baked. Cannoli is like manicotti, but much smaller. It is a pastry shell that is stuffed with a sweet filling and eaten as dessert. In Italy, supposedly manicotti is more like a crêpe that is rolled around a filling. Still confused? So am I. Wikipedia offers a lot of information.

SPINACH & RICOTTA CANNELLONI

SPINACH & RICOTTA CANNELLONI Serves 4 to 6. By Dennis W. Viau; modified from a recipe in The Fine Art of Italian Cooking by Giuliano Bugialli. If you love cannelloni, this recipe won t fail you. It delivers