Sunday 4 October 2015

Cannelloni



There are some excellent cannelloni tubes in dried pasta form but with the release of new fresh gluten free lasagne sheets, I recently had a go at making my own tubes with them.
It produced excellent cannelloni and so I thought I would share what I do.

Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni


Ingredients

2 Chicken Breasts
1 litre GF Chicken Stock
125g chopped Spinach (I use frozen)
250g Ricotta
30-40g slivered almonds roughly chopped 

Method

I like to poach my chicken breast first, so in a medium sized saucepan, bring 1 litre of gluten free liquid chicken stock to the boil (I use Massel) add chicken breasts and reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes.  Cook spinach during this time and set aside.

Remove chicken from stock and blitz in a food processor together with the cooked spinach.
Combine chicken/spinach mixture with chopped almonds & ricotta and incorporate well.

Heat lasagne sheets according to packet directions/individual microwave power.  This aids in ease of rolling but you must still work relatively quickly.  Keep remaining sheets under plastic wrap whilst working on another.

I like to use a store-bought pasta sauce keeping the flavours simple - remembering that the hero here is the pasta filling. Any sauce should compliment not take over.  I like to use a gluten free (by ingredient) Passata type sauce. Italian Tomato and Basil. Perfect.

Spread a little sauce in the base of a rectangular lasagne dish. Arrange cannelloni in a single layer immediately on top and cover generously with more sauce. Dress with cheese and a sprinkling of Italian herbs, cover with foil and into a 180°C oven for 45 minutes, removing the foil in the last 5 minutes.

Delicious and moreish. Enjoy!

(The above ingredients made about 15 tubes so I made 2 dishes. A large dish holding 10 tubes and a smaller rectangle with 5)