Spinach and Ricottah Cannelloni
Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni is an easy to cook vegetarian main course dish that is healthy, as well as extremely tasty. It takes about 40 minutes to prepare, and if you are a creative individual who loves to cook and do some experimental cooking as well, then you are going to love the recipe for this. There is so much more you can do with the basic recipe, that you can go on adding ingredients and alter the cooking process to come out with great new versions of this dish.
For cooking a serving of about 3-4 people, you will need the following ingredients – 1 pack of tofu (firm), spinach, cannelloni tubes, around 2 onions, 3 cloves of garlic, a cup of mushrooms, 2-3 fresh tomatoes, 1 bottle of Italian tomato sauce such as napolitana (if you can prepare this at home, nothing like it, as it will add freshness to your dish), some peanuts, olive oil, a little amount of red wine, 2-3 teaspoons of sun-dried tomato pesto, nutmeg, and some Italian herbs like basil, parsley, oregano and marjoram.
First, you will need to preheat the oven to 180 C, although it’s best to check what the cannelloni pack says. Following the temperature recommendations mentioned on the pack will ensure that your dish cooks well. While the oven is being prepared, dice and chop all the vegetables.
Next, for the filling, take a pan and add some olive oil in it. Add the chopped onions as well as the garlic cloves and brown the onions. Then add the spinach to the same pan and cook it; though this works only in the case of fresh spinach. If you are using frozen spinach, then you also first need to thaw and drain it. These are little things that you need to keep in consideration. If you know that you have a lot of other dishes as well to cook in the meal, then you can do the pre-preparations such as thawing and draining of the spinach along with the chopping of the vegetables earlier.
Once you have put the spinach in the pan, mash the tofu in a bowl. You can do this with the help of a fork. When you know that the spinach has been cooked well enough with the onions and the garlic, switch off the stove and add that mixture to the bowl of tofu. Add a pinch of nutmeg too, and mix the ingredients well.
Next, you need to prepare the sauce. For this, you will again need some chopped onions along with some cloves of garlic in a pan of olive oil. Brown the onions and add the mushrooms, tomatoes, all the herbs based on your taste along with the peanuts. Crush the peanuts if you like them better that way. After about couple of minutes, add the jar of the Italian tomato sauce; or the same amount of freshly cooked sauce. Let the vegetables cook in them for the next 4-5 minutes. Add the sun-dried pesto and a splash of red wine. While this being prepared, stuff the cannelloni.
Stuffing the cannelloni can be done with your hand. When you have put the filling in a good number of cannelloni, put them in a baking dish in neat rows. When the sauce is prepared, pour it all over the cannelloni and fill all the gaps in the middle. Make sure you pour it evenly and all over, so that the cannelloni is submerged in it. Cover the dish with aluminium foil, and then cook it at 180 C or depending on the instructions mentioned on your cannelloni pack. Serve alone or with mixed salad as an accompaniment.
- Ronit Baugh
Tags: Recipes, ricotta cannelloni, spinach, spinach and ricotta cannelloni, spinach cannelloni recipe
Related Posts:Related Posts
Leave a Comment
