Whenever we need a good, hearty meal for a Tuesday night dinner, I know I can always look to Jamie Oliver to deliver. And deliver he did. His recipe for spinach canneloni is fairly easy and definitely worth every little bit of effort it took. We made some garlic bread to sop up the extra sauce and had sausage-stuffed mushroom caps as an appetizer to round out the meal. A side salad is a nice addition as well.
Stuffed Mushrooms (Cooking Light, December 2006)
We made these with chicken sausage and veggie sausage. I was surprised to find out that everyone really liked the veggie sausage mushroom caps, although the filling didn't quite have the right consistency. I guess it just goes to show that you should feel free to substitute what you like; you never know, you might get something better.
24 large button mushrooms (about 1 3/4 lbs.)
cooking spray
3 Tbs. chopped green onions
1 garlic clove, minced
4 oz. 50%-less-fat pork sausage (such as Jimmy Dean 50% less fat)
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1/4 cup (2-oz.) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
3 Tbs. grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Clean mushrooms, and remove stems; finely chop stems.
3. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onions and garlic; saute 1 minute. Add sausage; cook until browned, stirring to crumble. Add reserved mushroom stems, red pepper, salt, and black pepper; saute 2 minutes or until stems are tender. Remove from heat; stir in cream cheese and breadcrumbs. Stuff 1 Tbs. sausage mixture into each mushroom cap. Arrange mushroom caps in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray; sprinkle evenly with Parmesan. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes or until lightly golden and thoroughly heated.
Awesome Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni (Jamie's Dinners, Jamie Oliver)
2 knobs of butter
olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
a large handful of fresh marjoram or oregano, roughly chopped
1/4 of a nutmeg, grated
8 large handfuls of spinach, thoroughly washed
a handful of fresh basil, stalks chopped, leaves ripped
2 14-oz. cans of good-quality plum tomatoes, chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a pinch of sugar
14 oz. crumbly ricotta cheese
2 handfuls of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
16 cannelloni tubes
7 oz. mozzarella, broken up
For the White Sauce
1 pint of creme fraiche
3 anchovies, finely chopped [or capers for a veggie version]
2 handfuls of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Then find a metal baking pan or ovenproof dish that will fit the cannelloni in one layer so it's nice and snug. This way you'll get the right over of sauce and the right amount of crispiness on top. When I cook this at home I just use one pan to cut down on the lots of washing up! Take your metal pan or a saucepan, put it on a high heat and add your butter, a drizzle of olive oil, one of the sliced garlic cloves, a handful of fresh marjoram or oregano and the grated nutmeg. By the time the pan is hot the garlic should be soft. Put as much spinach as will fit into the pan. Keep turning it over; it will wilt quickly so you will be able to keep adding more spinach until it's all in. Moisture will cook out of the spinach, which is fine. By cooking it this way you don't lose any of the nutrients that you would if boiling it in water.
2. After 5 minutes, put the spinach into a large bowl and leave to cool. Place the pan on the heat, add a little olive oil, the other clove of sliced garlic, your basil stalks and the tomatoes, then fill one of the empty tomato cans with cold water and add this too. Bring to the boil, then turn the head down, add a pinch of salt and pepper and the sugar, and simmer for about 10 minutes, until you get a loose tomato consistency. Then take the pan off the heat and add the basil leaves.
3. By now the spinach will have cooled down, so squeeze any excess liquid out of it and pour this back into the bowl. Finely chop the spinach and put it back into the bowl. Mix it with the liquid, add the ricotta and a handful of the Parmesan, and then use a piping bag to squeeze the mixture into the cannelloni. You can make your own piping bag by getting a plastic sandwich bag and putting the spinach mix into the corner of it. Then twist the bag up and cut the corner off. Carefully squeeze the filling into the cannelloni tubes so each one is fulled right up--really easy.
4. Lay the cannelloni over the tomato sauce in the pan. Or you can pour the tomato sauce into your ovenproof dish and lay the cannelloni on top. To make the white sauce, mix together the creme fraiche, anchovies, and the 2 handfuls of Parmesan with a little salt and pepper, then loosen with a little water until you can spoon it over the cannelloni. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan and the mozzarella pieces, and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes until golden and bubbling.
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