Saturday’s alfresco dinner party at my place offered me the chance to practice my newly attained pasta skills. I served three dishes: caprese ravioli, potato gnocchi with truffle butter and, my personal favorite, tagliatelli amatriciana. In all my bustling between steamy kitchen and backyard patio, it was too much effort for me to grab my camera and snap a few pics. So, on Sunday, without any photos for Monday, I spent the afternoon creating this baked fresh cannelloni recipe with a refrigerator full of Saturday’s leftover ingredients. I confess; I ate two large helpings of this smoky, cheesy, tomato-y dish at dinner.
Cannelloni
All ingredients are measured by weight, not volume
Ingredients
- 4 ounces flour
- 2 ounces egg
- 2 grams salt
- 3 ounces pancetta, diced
- 1 clove garlic, smashed
- 14.5 ounce can whole tomatoes, chopped*
- 4 ounces mozzarella
- 4 ounces ricotta
- 1.5 – 2 ounces fresh basil leaves (to taste)
- 2 ounces parmesan cheese
- Pesto sauce (optional)
Directions
- Place flour in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add egg and salt and blend until dough forms a ball and flour is fully incorporated. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.
- While dough rests, sauté pancetta until crisp. Remove pancetta, drain half of the oil from the pan. Add garlic to remaining oil, and sauté until fragrant.
- Add chopped tomatoes to garlic and reduce until only a bit of liquid remains. Remove garlic clove and set tomato sauce aside.
- In a food processor, combine mozzarella, ricotta, basil (to taste), and salt and pepper. Set aside.
- Roll dough into thin pasta sheets using a pasta roller, (Example: #7 on the Kitchenaid stand mixer pasta roller).
- Boil pasta sheets in a large pot of salted water for a few minutes. Dry sheets and lay flat.
- Fill pasta sheets lengthwise with ricotta mixture and roll up, overlapping pasta sheet at the seam by ½ inch, creating long rolls.
- Place a third of tomato sauce in the bottom of an 8” square pan. Cut cannelloni rolls in 8” sections to fit in pan, seam side down. Cover with remaining tomato sauce and parmesan cheese. Drizzle with pesto (optional).
- Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes until cannelloni is bubbly and brown on top. Finish with broiler, if needed.
*I use canned whole tomatoes and chopped them vs. chopped canned tomatoes because I like the quality of whole tomatoes better.
Two-Bit Tart 