Part of:
Pasta
Ingredients:
- 350 g Italian 00 soft wheat flour (12oz) (or all purpose flour or hard wheat semolina flour)
- 150 g fine corn flour (5oz)
- 1 tsp salt
- tepid water (as required)
- 400 g mixed ground beef, pork and lamb (14oz) (or just 2 types of ground meat)
- 100 g Pecorino Romano ( 3.5oz) (grated)
- 4 large eggs (or 5 medium)
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil.
- 30 g unsalted butter (1oz)
- 1 tsp nutmeg (freshly grated)
- salt (to taste)
- 500 g tomato passata (1.1lbs)
- 2 garlic cloves (peeled)
- fresh basil leaves
- salt (to taste)
- freshly ground black pepper. (to taste)
- 50 g Parmigiano Reggiano (2oz) (grated) {
Instructions:
- Sift the soft wheat flour (or hard wheat semolina flour) and the fine corn flour into a bowl or onto a pastry board, add a pinch of salt. Mix the flours and enough water together until you have the beginnings of a dough ball. Then knead on a pastry board until the dough is firm and elastic. Roll the dough into a ball and let it rest covered or wrapped in plastic wrap for 30 minutes.
- Cut off about 1/8th of the dough and roll it out into a thin sheet using a pasta machine or rolling pin (see notes). You should be able to just see your fingers through the sheet. Cut the dough sheet into 15cm squares and place them on a lightly floured surface. Repeat with the rest of the dough and let the ready sheets rest for another 10 minutes.
- Mix the ground meat with the pecorino, eggs, salt and nutmeg in a bowl. Heat the olive oil and 20g of butter in a frying pan or skillet and cook the filling mixture stirring more or less continuously until the meat is browned. Set aside and allow to cool.
- Bring abundant salted water to a boil, add a tablespoon of olive oil and cook the squares of pasta, a few at a time so that they do not stick together. Remove from the water one at a time and lay them gently on a clean tea towel.
- Place a little of the prepared meat filling on each square. Roll the sheets of pasta into cannelloni and arrange them seam side down in a pan greased with olive oil or butter. Brush the cannelloni with beaten egg yolk, sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of cinnamon powder, add a few small pieces of butter on the top of the cannelloni and bake in a preheated oven at 160 ° C for about 20 minutes. Serve immediately
- You don’t need to parboil the pasta for this method. I prefer to use thinner fresh pasta sheets than for the first method. You can also use dried cannelloni or manicotti instead.
- Peel the garlic cloves and sauté them in olive oil until they start to soften. Add the tomato passata and some salt and pepper to taste and simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove the garlic and add the basil. Cook for another 5 minutes on alow heat.
- Place some filling along the centre of each pasta square. Brush one side with egg yolk and roll the pasta around the filling (see photo in the post). Spread some tomato sauce in the bottom of an oven dish and place the cannelloni seam side down in the dish one next to the other.
- Cover the cannelloni with the rest of the tomato sauce and sprinkle the top with a generous amount of parmigiano. Bake in a preheated oven at 175°c for about 25 minutes until the pasta is cooked and the cheese topping is slightly browned.