Cannelloni with spinach and ham

How to make cannelloni with spinach and ham .

Within Italian gastronomy , wheat pasta is one of its star foods. Whatever the way it is consumed, a plate of pasta is almost the day to day of Italian tables.

The cannelloni cannelloni or Italian, are one more way in which we can find wheat pasta.

These are square or rectangular plates of pasta that can be filled with a large amount of food, be it meat, fish or even vegetables.

Gioachino Rossini, Italian composer, is credited with inventing this type of pasta preparation, in fact one of the most typical cannelloni recipes is cannelloni alla Rossini, stuffed with meat with foie gras and mushrooms, bathed in bechamel .

An Italian cannelloni recipe, cannelloni with spinach or cannelloni di spinaci.

It is about preparing a filling with spinach as a base, with which to form our cannelloni, and cover them with a thick bechamel sauce enriched with Roquefort cheese, a combination that I personally love.

Of course you can use the cheese that you like the most to accompany the bechamel sauce , although it needs to be of the creamy type so that they bind perfectly.

In Italy you can find a creamier filling where we combine spinach with ricotta, although that will be another recipe that I will explain later.

Cannelloni offer us endless possibilities when filling it, although it is true that they require some work in the kitchen.

Although this recipe is very good, you can also prepare some cannelloni stuffed with meat , cannelloni ripieni or some fish cannelloni. A great alternative to enjoy pasta.

Cooking the pasta and preparing the filling

1. We start by cooking the cannelloni pasta plates following the manufacturer’s instructions.
2. Once cooked, we place them separately on a damp cloth and reserve them until the moment of using them.
3. In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil and when it is ready add the onion and the garlic clove cut into small cubes, in brunoise.
4. Fry the vegetables until soft, which will take us about 15 minutes over medium heat. Add the ham cut into cubes and continue cooking for 2 or 3 minutes.
5. We wash the spinach, remove the root and cut them roughly, it is not necessary to cut them into too small pieces.
6. Add the spinach to the pan and cook until they have reduced in volume. Add the brandy and let the alcohol evaporate and reduce.
7. We remove from the fire and reserve. We can taste the salt at this time and add if necessary.

Preparation of the bechamel sauce

1. We prepare a bechamel sauce in a large frying pan. For this we heat the butter and at the moment it melts we add the flour.
2. We cook the flour to eliminate the flavor and salt lightly.
3. We initially incorporate 100 ml. of milk and with some rods, without stopping to stir, we are integrating it with the butter.
4. We add the milk little by little while continuing to beat with the rods to avoid lumps.
5. We can add a pinch of nutmeg at this time.
6. Add the crumbled Roquefort cheese to the bechamel sauce and continue stirring until it has dissolved.
7. Cook the sauce for 5 minutes over low heat, stirring constantly and remove from the heat.
8. Add a few tablespoons of the bechamel sauce to the spinach sauce and mix well to integrate.

Baking and final presentation of stuffed cannelloni

1. We assemble the cannelloni by filling each of the plates with the spinach sauce and placing them on a tray suitable for the oven.
2. Once we have all the cannelloni prepared and placed on the tray, we cover them with the bechamel sauce and bake at 190º C, with the oven previously heated up and down, hot for 15 minutes.
3. We change the position of the oven and gratin the surface for 5 minutes.

We serve very warm and garnish with mint leaves or sprinkled with fresh parsley.

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

Tips for some stuffed cannelloni

• Although it is not a vegetarian recipe , it is very easy to solve, since we can substitute that pinch of ham for tofu or even another vegetable. You can see our vegetarian version in the cannelloni stuffed with spinach and ricotta , with yummy, of course.
• The spinach filling can be enriched with a garlic and onion-based sauce to which other vegetables can be added, but in a small amount and without taking away from the spinach that is the main element of the dish.
• We can accompany these spinach cannelloni with a tomato and onion salad dressed simply with oil, vinegar and salt. It doesn’t take much more to enjoy a very tasty and complete pasta dish.