Cannelloni and Salad

Whew!! What a weekend. We have officially started renovating our kitchen :) I am very happy about this as our kitchen drives me mad! However, this will be a really big project and may impact some of my cooking for the next 6 weeks or so. At the moment, all of my cooking appliances are still in tact, so I can still make some decent meals.

I was looking for a recipe this weekend that would utilize the rest of the tomato sauce I made the other week. I found a recipe for cannelloni in Bill Granger's Bills Food and this was our dinner tonight, served with a side salad.

First off, I think I have discovered that Australian and American lasagne sheets are distinctly different. I believe the Australian ones are thicker, allowing them to be rolled up along the long axis. American ones are quite thin, meant to be laid side by side, hence rolling them along the long axis is impossible. Therefore, my cannelloni rolls were somewhat different to Bill's, but still tasted great, I thought. As I mentioned above, I also used the tomato sauce I made from Jamie Oliver's recipe, rather than the one that came from Bill in this recipe.

The cannelloni turned out great. I rolled them into almost a "rollotini" and served 2 per person. I think the ruffled edges gave a nice touch as well. Then I threw together a tossed salad of arugula, tomatoes, onion, walnuts, red pepper and nectarines.

This was a lovely recipe from Bill's book. I loved the addition of the prosciutto to the cannelloni. Very tasty and hubby asked for seconds, so it got his thumbs up :)




Cannelloni with Fresh Tomato Sauce
(Serves 4)

1 lb of ricotta
1/4 cup grated parmesan
2 tbs chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tsp chopped fresh oregano
2 tbs chopped fresh basil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
salt and pepper
8 lasagne sheets
2 tbs olive oil
8 slices prosciutto
cooking spray
basil leaves to garnish

1. Pre-heat oven too 400F. Stir together the ricotta, parmesan, herbs, eggs, salt and pepper in a bowl.

2. Cook the lasagne sheets as directed then cool in a bowl of cold water and olive oil. Drain lasagne sheets on paper towel. Place a slice of prosciutto lengthwise on each slice, then spread 2 tbs of ricotta mix on top. Roll up lasagne sheet and place into a baking dish coated in cooking spray. Place remaining rolls in a single layer, then coat with cooking spray. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until puffed and slightly crispy.

3. Whilst the cannelloni is cooking, prepare your tomato sauce as desired and make salad.

4. To serve, place 2 cannelloni rolls on each plate, cover with tomato sauce. garnish with basil leaves and serve with salad.