I don’t think there’s a woman in the culinary world that I respect more than Ada Boni.
At the beginning of the 1900s, when the status of women was rather backward (consider that they didn’t even have the opportunity to vote!), this bourgeois lady founded a cooking magazine.
She wrote one of the most famous cookbooks in Italy, which still stands out in the pantries of many families: the legendary Talisman of Happiness!
Ada Boni was a cultured researcher of typical regional recipes, and her book “La Cucina Romana,” now unobtainable, is a true Bible of wisdom.
I tried this recipe for the first time for my sister Mirta’s birthday when she was a little girl, and I haven’t stopped since then.
Cannelloni the Etruscan Way
- Preparation time: 90 minutes
- Ingredients for 6 servings
- Difficulty: Average difficult recipe
- Ingredients
- For the fresh pasta:
- 2 eggs
- 200 g of all-purpose flour
- For the filling:
- 3 whole eggs
- 100 g of ham
- 20 g of dried porcini mushrooms
- 1 large fior di latte mozzarella cheese
- 100 g of Emmental
- 100g of fontina
- Salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste
- Grated parmesan to taste
- Butter to taste
- For the béchamel:
- 40 g of butter
- 40 g of flour
- 500 ml of milk
- Instructions
- For the pasta dough, lightly beat the eggs. Pour the flour onto the pastry board, make a hole in the center, and pour in the eggs. Knead until the mixture is very smooth. Cover with cellophane and let it rest at room temperature for half an hour.
- To make the béchamel, melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour, and continue cooking over a moderate heat while whisking for few minutes. Add the milk. Season with salt and pepper and cook until the sauce thickens, stirring continuously with a whisk. Add some nutmeg.
- Meanwhile, soak the dried mushrooms in one glass of boiling water. When the water cools, take the mushrooms and cut them into cubes. Place the mushrooms, with some of the water in which they were soaked, in a small pan with a little oil and cook for a few minutes.
- Remove 1/3 of the béchamel from the saucepan and add a couple of spoons of milk to make it more fluid. Add to the remaining 2/3 of the béchamel a handful of grated parmesan and the eggs (one at a time).
- Combine the diced cheeses, the ham, and the mushrooms. The sauce, thus obtained, must be quite consistent.
- Roll out the dough with the dough sheeter to a thickness of two millimeters. Cut the fresh pasta into squares. Cook the fresh pasta in salted water for two minutes. Drain it, place it in a bowl with iced water, drain it again, and let it cool on a clean cloth. When it is cold, form cannelloni with the mushroom, cheese, and ham sauce inside.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Butter a baking tray, add a spoonful of béchamel sauce at the bottom, place the cannelloni, and pour the remaining béchamel sauce over them. Add some small pieces of butter and grated parmesan cheese.
- Bake for twenty minutes until crisp.
Tips to ensure the success of the dish:
- Béchamel sauce tips are here.
- When adding the eggs and cheeses, the béchamel must be lukewarm.
- Boil the pasta rectangles a few at a time to prevent them from sticking to each other.
- For those who don’t have time to make cannelloni, this recipe can easily be adapted to a lasagna or a short pasta timbale such as conchiglioni.
