There is no Sunday in the Hostaria without a good plate of cannelloni: they are really delicious and children, for arcane reasons, usually like them very much.
It is a complete dish and has the convenience of being made in advance and cooked at the last moment!
I have adapted this recipe from one of Livio Jannattoni’s. His book on Roman cuisine is always of great inspiration.
Cannelloni filled with meat ragout
- Preparation time: 180 minutes
- Ingredients for 4-6 servings
- Difficulty: Difficult recipe
- Ingredients
- For pasta dough:
- 2 eggs
- 200 gr or 7 oz flour
- For the filling:
- 700 gr or 1 lb 8 oz of mixed minced meat
- 110 gr or 4 oz of prosciutto
- 25 gr or 1 oz of dried mushrooms
- ½ glass of white wine
- ½ onion
- 2 tablespoons of flour
- 2 spoons of tomato paste
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Nutmeg to taste
- 200 gr or 7 oz of béchamel sauce
- Extra virgin olive oil to taste
- For the béchamel sauce:
- 240 ml or 1 cup of milk
- 20 gr or 3/4 oz of flour
- 20 gr or ¾ oz of butter
- For the seasoning:
- 200 gr or 7 oz of tomato sauce
- Butter to taste
- Grated parmesan to taste
- Instructions
- Make the pasta. On the pastry board pour the flour creating a hole in the center and pour the eggs that you will have slightly beaten. Knead until the mixture is smooth. Cover with cellophane and let it rest at room temperature for one hour.
- Pull the dough with a dough sheeter to a thickness of 0 1⁄16inch. Cut it into squares of 3 15⁄16inch by 3 15⁄16inch.
- Prepare the filling: soak the dried mushrooms in a little boiling water. After about ten minutes, drain them and chop them with a knife.
- Prepare the béchamel sauce.
- Finely chop the onion and the ham.
- In a non-stick pan, stew the onion with a little oil for about ten minutes. Remove the onion, putting it on a saucer, and insert the minced meat in the pan. Cook well over a high flame, then addthe ham and mushrooms, season with salt, pepper, andnutmeg. Add the wine and let it evaporate. Combine the onion and tomato sauce with a ladleof water and cook over a gentle flame for about two hours. Season with salt and pepper. Allow the mixture to cool and add the béchamel and the flour.
- Boil water for pasta in a pot. Salt the boiling water with the coarse salt and stir the squares of fresh pasta for a couple of minutes. Pull the squares of dough out of the water with a skimmer and cool them in a bowl filled with cold water and ice. Put them on a kitchen towel to dry.
- Arrange a little meatfilling in the pasta squares and roll them up. Align them on a buttered pan and pour over top the tomato sauce, grated Parmesan and butter flakes.
- Bake at 350°F for about twenty minutes. Turn on the broiler the last five minutes to form the crust.
Tips to ensure the success of the dish:
- The meat sauce must be cooked for a long time. If it is too tight add a little water but not too much because the filling otherwise becomes too soft.
- Boil the pasta squares a few at a time to prevent them from sticking to each other.
- For the bechamel see here the procedure
- For tomato sauce see here the procedure
