Three-Cheese Spinach Cannelloni

Three-Cheese Spinach Cannelloni - Photo by JayDi Photography

Sometimes, mistakes are blessings in disguise.  I've been wanting to make a creamy roasted red pepper sauce for the longest time.  I had all the supplies. Last night, we set out to make this sauce and when we tasted it, it was, let's just say, overly acidic.  I'd followed the recipe to the letter.  I checked the jar of roasted peppers that I had purchased and noticed in fine print that they were marinated in a vinegar solution. Oye vé! Yeah, that explained it. I'd bought the wrong kind. What to do now? I had a whole bowl of cheese filling. No tomato sauce in the cupboard. But I did have leftover pureed tomatoes that I'd frozen and still almost a full can of diced tomatoes. Ok... This became a tag-team event. I  threw everything into a pot with the usual flavour tools (onions, garlic, salt & pepper) and took care of the sauce and Jay took care of piping the cheese filling into the cannelloni tubes.  In the end, it couldn't have come out better if I had actually planned to make it a tomato sauce. Fifteen years ago, the first meal I ever cooked for Jay was spaghetti. Now on our eighth wedding anniversary, we're still making pasta together, as happily as ever. :)

Three-Cheese Spinach Cannelloni

Ingredients

Creamy Tomato Sauce:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 cup chopped yellow onion

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb Italian sausage meat, out of casing (ground beef, chicken or turkey can be used)

1 large can diced tomatoes

4 ounces pureed tomatoes

Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper

3/4 cup heavy cream

Cannelloni:

One 8-ounce box cannelloni shells (12 shells), soaked in warm water for 2 minutes (I use the oven-ready style to skip the soaking process)

1 pound whole milk ricotta cheese

4 ounces whipped cream cheese

1 1/3 cups grated Parmesan, plus more for garnish

1 large egg

3 grounds fresh nutmeg

1 1/2 ounces chopped spinach leaves (about 2 cups)

1/2 cup chopped diced tomatoes, drained

Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper

1/4 cup coarsely ground panko breadcrumbs

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the Tomato Sauce:  Bring the oil to medium heat in a large saucepot. Sweat the onions until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and sweat until fragrant, about a minute. Add the ground meat and cook until the meat is no longer pink. Stir in the tomatoes. Simmer for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and whisk in the cream. Season with salt and pepper. (If making ahead, cool before refrigerating for up to a week)

For the cannelloni: In a medium mixing bowl, combine the ricotta, cream cheese, 1 cup of the Parmesan, the egg and nutmeg with a wooden spoon. Fold in the reserved shredded chicken, spinach, tomatoes and some salt and pepper. Spoon the filling into a medium pastry bag fitted with a large open tip. Spread 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce evenly on the bottom of a 9- by 13-inch gratin dish. Pipe about 2 1/2 tablespoons of the filling into the cannelloni shells and place them into the gratin dish. Spoon the remaining sauce over the cannelloni. Sprinkle with the panko and remaining Parmesan. Cover and bake until the filling is cooked through, about 30 minutes. Bake uncovered until the top is golden and bubbling, an additional 5 to 7 minutes. Remove and cool on a resting rack. Garnish with Parmesan and serve.