When I first got married and hosted dinner parties, my go-to meals were usually pseudo-Italian; spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, cannelloni, things that involved ground beef and cheese.
I guess I finally bored myself and now I rarely make them which is too bad because I think I’m better qualified to bring some authenticity to these plates. But not today. Today is a “I can’t be bothered” day, involving cans and “no pre-cook” dried pasta.
Yesterday, we closed a deal on a house rental, move in date December 15th. Nice house, old decrepit stove. Landlord vows to seek solution without mentioning the word “purchase.” Indoor, continuous swimming pool with sauna 🙂 Taxes to be paid on rain water, no vacuuming or car washing on Sunday and, in case of need, pedestrian walk snow shoveling duties to be shared with neighbor, choosing even or odd days 😮
If you really can’t be bothered to make the sauce, buy one of those jars of spaghetti sauce. I would have done this but I couldn’t be bothered to go to the store 😀
Cannelloni
Sauce
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped
1 tsp fresh basil, chopped
2 cans diced tomatoes
1/2 cup red wine
1/4 cup water
Salt and pepper
Filling
1 small onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lb ground steak
1 cup ricotta
2 eggs, beaten
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper
20 no pre-cook cannelloni shells
1 1/2 cups mozzarella, crumbled
To make the sauce, saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil until the onion is soft. Add the oregano and basil, then continue to saute for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and red wine and boil for about 3 minutes. Add the water, salt, pepper, then simmer for 1 hour.
For the filling, saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil until the onion is soft. Add the ground steak and cook until just done. Allow to cool. In the meantime, mix together the ricotta, eggs, parsley, salt and pepper. When the meat is cool, stir in the ricotta mixture and stuff into the cannelloni shells.
To assemble, spread some tomato sauce on the bottom of a baking pan, top with the stuffed cannelloni and spread more sauce on top. Sprinkle with the crumbled mozzarella and bake in a 375 F oven for about 30 minutes.
Reblogged this on Annette J Dunlea Irish Author and commented:
reblogging this blog…I love Italian cooking
Thank you Annette.
Those jars of sauce won’t do for me, but your recipe sounds good anyway 🙂
No vacuuming on Sundays – is it next to a church?
I’m glad you found a house anyway – give the landlord hell with regard to a decent stove!
Thank you Mad. It’s a German law; no vacuuming and no car washing on Sunday. I wonder who thought that up. I wonder who had the time.
Unbelievable!
So no one can vacuum on a Sunday? Or just in buildings with multi units? I think Sundays would fast become my favourite day. 🙂 Car washing is a bit strange though.
My husband and I were just discussing that. We’ve been told by other Americans about the vacuuming but one would think that it’s just for apartments but I guess not.
I’ll have to ask my friend about this. Wonder if it’s a local thing.
Wow, I’d not heard of that one!! I remember that there was absolutely no lawn-mowing on Sundays, and the rest of the week no noise between 12 and 2, but no vacuuming on Sundays in your own house with the windows closed?? I’d heard about no laundry on Sundays in Switzerland, but that… ??
Bizarre.
This looks (and MUST taste) absolutely wonderful!!! Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you. Bon appetit!
Rosemary,
I love the ‘too lazy to go to the store so you made the sauce’. I understand entirely. Good luck with the house move. On the snow shovelling front, I was asked by a neighbour to stop shovelling the snow as I was making him look bad. He was not joking. When he went back in, I cleared the entire road outside his house. He was not impressed. I enjoyed the exercise and the bit of badness.
Best,
Conor
On our day to shovel the snow, we’ll call you Conor 🙂
I’ve done that too! I was making something the other day that required canned creamed corn (I know. You’ll see soon!). Too lazy to go buy it, so I made it from scratch.
I love homemade creamed corn!
Snowy and cold over here…this is something I would love for the lunch. Delish!
Thank you Angie. Snowy and cold here too 🙂
Congrats on finding a rental house and good luck with the move. So interesting about the vacuuming! Love your cannelloni and I haven’t made any in so long…think I will give this a try sometime soon. 🙂
Thank you. It’s nice having so many food bloggers out there. I’ve learned some new things and rediscovered old ones.
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Lovely cannelloni! I admit, I use the jarred sauce sometimes too :).
No apologies necessary 😉
Two thoughts: What is a continuous swimming pool? I’m having image troubles here. Second, you jogged a wonderful memory of doing hand-rolle cannelloni when I live in Nepal, we’d do it around bamboo poles and rig them in the dining room to dry. Here I will buy some dried and try your recipe, and remember good times – thanks!
Modest size pool that allows you to swim in place.
I love this recipe! I will make sure when I make my own I will use ricotta, never used them in cannelloni
What do you stuff the cannelloni with?
Congrats on the new rental! This looks great. And I am a big fan of no-boil lasagna sheets. I actually read in some fancy chef cookbook that if you just briefly parboil them, they have better consistency than the noodles you actually boil.
Thank you Daisy. I’ll try parboiling them next time!
Just for a few seconds. Think shabu-shabu. Swish, swish. It is a bit of a pain, and they all stick together, but I really do think the texture is better.
I know you have to be right about that. I’ve always been a little disappointed in the texture.
They are so convenient though. I remember reading about the parboiling trick in some article with some star chef . . .
But I guess if you are going to heat up water to parboil, you might as well cook the regular ones or deal with the texture.
This is true.
Great recipe!! Made spinach lasagne last night and still have a tub of ricotta left, so will try your recipe once the leftovers are eaten up 🙂 Thanks for the post!
Spinach lasagna is so good! Thanks for reminding me!