Cannelloni with Boletus mushrooms

How to make cannelloni stuffed with mushrooms.

What a good combination in this recipe. On the one hand there is pasta, one of my passions, with the creamy touch of bechamel and cheese, on the other the delicious Boletus, the kings of the bush in autumn, accompanied with all the flavor of fresh pork belly.

In general, mushrooms (in this case Boletus Edulis ) fit very well with any type of pasta. From a sauce to accompany some spaghetti, through the filling of fresh pasta and to a delicious plate of lasagna or cannelloni . Let’s do it.

Today I have decided to use some fresh Boletus from the Sierra de Madrid to prepare some cannelloni. If you do not have freshly collected specimens, you can use dehydrated or canned ones, there are very good quality ones.

The cannelloni recipes give a little work but it is worth the effort.

In the blog you will find other preparations with this type of pasta: the Cannelloni ripieni , stuffed with meat, fish and other fillings. As you can see, they adapt to any filling that we feel like. Going back to our recipe, you will love these cannelloni.

To give it an authentic Italian touch we have prepared this recipe with Garofalo’s Cannelloni , which give such good results, guaranteed quality.

A very tasty autumn filling, plus the bechamel and the gratin cheese, we will have a spectacular result. So get to work! You will tell me …

Preparation of Boletus cannelloni and fresh bacon

1. If we have fresh Boletus, we start by cleaning them.
2. We remove remains of earth with a damp cloth or a brush. In the trunk, we remove the outermost layer, to keep the white and healthy area.
3. Once ready, we cut them into cubes. Keep in mind that later they decrease a lot when cooking.
4. Peel the vegetables, and chop them into small brunoise. Chop the garlic very fine. To the bacon, we remove the skin and the parts with more fat, at the ends. We cut it into strips.
5. In a frying pan with a little olive oil, we brown the bacon, which we salt to taste. When it begins to take color, add the onion and zucchini. Mix and fry everything together over medium heat, about 10 minutes. Salt lightly.
6. Now we add the garlic and the boletus. We mix and continue cooking. Little by little the Boletus will release their water and flavor to the rest of the filling.
7. We poach well 10/12 minutes. We reserve and let cool. This point is important to then be able to fill the pasta in conditions.
8. To prepare the pasta, you can use some pasta plates to use (traditional) or ones that are already pre-cooked.
9. If you have the first ones, we cook them in plenty of water (1 liter for every 80 gr.).
10. Once it comes to a boil, add a generous handful of salt and then the pasta, in two batches, so that they cook well and do not stick to us.
11. We respect the cooking times of the container. We remove them, and reserve on a dry cloth, so that they cool.

In the case of precooked pasta, it is recommended to follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

As a general rule, they should be placed in water for 20 minutes. Try to move them from time to time so they don’t stick.

The bechamel, assembly and final baking. Presentation

1. With cannelloni, we prefer a light béchamel sauce . In the Blog you will find the recipe to prepare it perfect.
2. We preheat the oven for 10 minutes at 200º C. With the pasta and the sofrito already cold, we begin assembling the dish.
3. We put a little filling on one end of the pasta plate and then roll carefully.
4. In a baking dish / pan (large enough), spread a thin layer of bechamel on the base. We place the stuffed cannelloni on it, leaving a little space between them. Finished the first layer, add the rest of the béchamel on top, covering completely evenly. Finally, we cover with abundant cheese to gratin.
5. Bake 15 minutes at 200º C and 5 minutes more with the grill function activated, so that the cheese is browned and gratinated.

At the end of time, we must still wait to sink their teeth. The cannelloni come out very hot from the oven, and they must cool down so that they take consistency and “settle”.

After 10 minutes we serve at the table, with a metal spatula (or similar), which allows us to properly serve the cannelloni.

You can see all the photos of the step by step in the next album .

Tips for when we collect Boletus

• We will use a wide wicker basket and never a plastic or cloth bag. We want them to be aerated and spores to stay in the field while we walk.
• The knife is not used to pick it up, it is enough to gently grasp its trunk and with a slight twisting movement we will tear it from the ground.
• Once in our hands, we clean the soil from the base of the foot “in situ”, scraping with the razor. What we can clean up, it is better to do it already in the bush.
• If we check any yellowish or dark part in the meat, we also eliminate it “in situ”. Of course, check that they do not carry worms or insects, because you run the risk of infecting the rest of the mushrooms in the basket
• As soon as you get home, it is necessary to “process them again”: we separate the hat from the foot. We will never use water. We remove the foam from the inside of the hat (it comes out easily with your hands) and we clean it with a brush or kitchen paper on the outside.
• We peel the foot with a knife until we have a perfectly white trunk with a firm texture. If they are small specimens we clean them as a whole, without separating the hat, and we can even leave the foam if it is perfectly white and whole.
• Once cleaned, the next step is to reserve them in the refrigerator, where they will hold us perfectly 3-4 days. Another option is to freeze them raw or lightly sauteed, keep them in oil or pickled.