Veal And Spinach Cannelloni Recipes

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
• Meanwhile, heat the EVOO in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the sausage and crumble to very small pieces. Then add the veal, brown and crumble. Add the sage, garlic, onions and some salt and pepper, and cook until tender. Separate the spinach with your fingertips and add to the skillet. Stir to heat through, then deglaze with the wine and remove from the heat.
• In a saucepot over medium heat, melt the butter, whisk in the flour and bring to a bubble. Whisk in the milk and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. Thicken the sauce to coat the back of a spoon. Taste to adjust the seasoning and remove a ladle of sauce to combine with the egg yolks to temper them. Add the egg yolks to the sauce and stir in half of the fontina cheese and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Reduce the heat to low, or cover to keep warm.
• Salt the water, and cook the pasta to a chewy al dente, 6 to 7 minutes. Then drain and cool. Fill the tubes or shells with the meat filling using small spoon. Cover the bottom of the baking dish with one-quarter of the sauce, then arrange the shells and cover with the remaining sauce, then top with the remaining cheese. Refrigerate or freeze for a make-ahead meal.
• Bake from room temperature at 375 degrees F until brown and bubbly, 30 to 40 minutes.

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain, separate shells, and set aside.
• Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C). In a 9 x 13 baking dish, combine veal, carrots, celery, chopped half onion and spinach. Stir well. Stir in 1 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 1/4 teaspoon pepper, 2 tablespoons olive oil and white wine. Place in oven and roast until veal is brown and vegetables are soft, 30 to 40 minutes. Stir frequently. If meat begins to smoke, reduce heat to 400 degrees (200 degrees C).
• Let meat mixture cool 15 minutes, then process in food processor until finely chopped. Return to pan and stir in cream, Roma tomatoes, Parmesan, Italian seasoning and 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil. Bake 20 minutes more. Remove from oven and let cool.
• While meat mixture is cooling enough to handle, make tomato sauce. Puree canned tomatoes with their juice in food processor until smooth. In large skillet over medium heat, heat 2 tablespoons virgin olive oil. Saute garlic and chopped onion until soft. Stir in pureed tomato, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Cook 5 to 10 minutes, or until no longer watery. Add four chopped basil leaves and cook 1 minute more.
• Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Stuff pasta shells with cooled meat mixture, 2 to 3 tablespoons per shell. Place shells in clean 9 x 13 baking dish. Pour tomato sauce over shells and bake 20 minutes, or until sauce is bubbly.

Steps:

• Defrost the spinach in the microwave, wring dry and separate.
• Heat the EVOO in a pan over medium-high heat. Pat the meat dry, and then add to the pan and lightly brown while you crumble. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add the onions and garlic and cook 10 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Deglaze the pan with the wine, stir and add 2 cups tomato puree. Stir, reduce heat to a low simmer and simmer 15 to 20 minutes.
• Pour the remaining 2 cups tomato puree into a casserole.
• Melt the butter in saucepot over medium to medium-high heat. Whisk in the flour for 1 minute. Then add the milk, bring to a bubble, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, and cook until it's thick enough to coat a spoon. Stir in the soft cheese.
• Working over the casserole dish, fill the manicotti with the meat using a spoon. Top the manicotti with the white sauce and Parmesan. Cover with parchment and foil and cool or bake off. Bake, covered, at 375 degrees F for 40 minutes from fresh, or bake 1 hour from cold to heat through and cook the pasta. Then uncover and bake until brown and bubbly, about 20 minutes more.

Steps:

• 1 Prepare the béchamel sauce. 2 Put the spinach in a large pot over medium heat with 1/4 cup of water. Cover and cook 2 to 3 minutes or until wilted and tender. Drain and cool. Wrap the spinach in a lint-free cloth and squeeze out as much water as possible. Finely chop the spinach. 3 In a large skillet, melt the butter over mediumlow heat. Add the veal, carrots, celery, onion, and garlic. Season to taste with salt and pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the meat is very tender, about 1 hour. If the meat becomes dry, add a little water. Let cool. On a cutting board with a large knife, or in a food processor, chop the mixture very fine. Scrape the meat and spinach into a bowl and add 1 cup of the béchamel and 1 cup of the Parmigiano. Mix well and taste for seasoning. 4 Meanwhile, prepare the pasta. Lay out some lint-free kitchen towels on a flat surface. Have ready a large bowl of cold water. Bring about 4 quarts of water to a boil. Add 2 tablespoons of salt. Add the pasta squares a few pieces at a time. Cook the pasta until tender but slightly underdone. Scoop the pasta out of the water and place it in the cold water. When cool enough to handle, lay the pasta sheets out flat on the towels, which can be stacked one on top of the other. Continue cooking and cooling the remaining pasta in the same way. 5 Spoon half of the remaining béchamel in a thin layer in a large baking pan. Spread about two tablespoons of the filling on one end of each pasta square and roll up, starting from the filled end. Place the pasta roll seam-side down in the prepared pan. Repeat with the remaining pasta and filling, arranging the rolls close together in the pan. Spoon on the remaining sauce and sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of Parmigiano. (Can be made up to 24 hours in advance. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Remove from the refrigerator about 1 hour before baking.) 6 Place a rack in the center of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F. Bake 30 minutes or until the cannelloni are heated through and lightly golden. Serve hot. From "1,000 Italian Recipes." Copyright 2004 by Michele Scicolone. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Steps:

• Pour the hot stock over the porcini in a small heatproof bowl. Let stand until softened, about 20 minutes. Drain the porcini, reserving the liquid. Rinse the porcini to remove sand and grit, and strain the soaking liquid through a coffee filter or a double thickness of cheesecloth. Reserve the mushrooms and liquid separately.
• Preheat the oven to 400° F. Cut the pork into 2-inch pieces and place them in a roasting pan large enough to hold them comfortably. Add the carrots, celery, onion, rosemary leaves, and the reserved porcini. Season lightly with salt, drizzle 3 tablespoons of the olive oil over all, and toss well. Pour in the wine. Roast until the wine has evaporated and the meat begins to brown, about 25 minutes. Continue roasting, adding 1/2 cup of the reserved mushroom-soaking liquid every 15 minutes or so, until the meat and vegetables are well browned and the meat is tender, about 2 hours. At the end of the roasting, there should be about 1 1/2 cups of liquid in the roasting pan. Drain the meat and vegetables, reserving the liquid. Toss the mortadella in with the meats and vegetables and cool to room temperature.
• Meanwhile, in a wide skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat. Whack the garlic with the flat side of a knife, add it to the oil, and cook until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Add as much spinach as will fit comfortably into the pan. Continue cooking, stirring and adding the remaining spinach a large handful at a time when the spinach in the pan wilts enough to make room, until all the spinach is added. Season lightly with salt and pepper and cook until all the spinach is wilted and tender. Remove from the heat.
• Make the béchamel sauce.
• Pass the meat-and-vegetable mixture through a meat grinder fitted with a disc with holes about 1/4 inch in diameter. Stir in 1/4 cup of the grated cheese and 1/2 cup of the béchamel sauce, blending the filling well as you do. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Beat the eggs until foamy, then stir them into the ground-meat mixture.
• Preheat the oven to 375° F. Ladle about 3/4 cup of the béchamel sauce in an even layer over the bottom of each of two 13 × 9-inch baking dishes. Spoon 1/3 cup of the filling in a more or less even mound along one edge of one of the pasta squares. Roll up into a tube, pressing and evening out the tube as you roll. Arrange the cannelloni into the prepared baking dish, side by side and seam side down. Divide the remaining béchamel evenly between the two baking dishes, smoothing it into an even layer over the cannelloni. Drizzle about three-quarters of the reserved meat-cooking liquid over the cannelloni, dividing it evenly. Sprinkle the tops with 1 cup of the grated cheese. Cover the dishes with aluminum foil and bake 20 minutes. Uncover the baking dishes and bake until the tops are golden brown and bubbling, about 20 minutes. If the tops are browning unevenly, rotate the baking dishes from side to side and shelf to shelf, then continue baking. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. Lift the cannelloni to warm plates with a spatula and spoon some of the sauce over each serving. Pass additional grated cheese if you like.