Cannelloni
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Serves: 8
For Sauce
- Oil for frying
- 2 onions, finely diced
- 8 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
- 380g/13ozs. tomato paste
- 800g/1.7lbs arrabiata pasta sauce (or your favourite)
- 200ml/7floz vodka (optional)
- 1 tablespoon chilli flakes (optional, but recommended if you don't use Arrabiata)
- 200ml/7flozs cream
For Filling
- 800g/1.7lbs Italian sausage, skins removed
- 80g/2.8ozs fresh white breadcrumbs (not dried)
- 80ml/2.8flozs milk
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 500g/1.1lbs cannelloni shells (2x250g boxes)
- 500g/1.1lbs cherry bocconcini
- 300g/10.6ozs mozzarella, torn or grated
Step 1 - First make the vodka sauce. Heat the oil in a large cast iron pot and sauté the onions for 5 minutes on medium heat. Then add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomato paste, pasta sauce and vodka and cook for 5 minutes. Stir the cream through and set aside.
Step 2 -Preheat oven to 180C/350F and oil a 35x24x8cm or 14x9.4x3inch baking dish and add a third of the tomato sauce mixture on the base spreading it out. In a bowl mix the skinned sausages, breadcrumbs, milk and beaten eggs well. Then you can pop this into a piping bag (no need for a tip) or you can roll these into tiny meatballs but the piping bag is much quicker.
Step 3 -Take a cannelloni shell and pipe some meat filling into it a third of the way in. Then stuff two cherry bocconcini in the centre and then fill the end with more meat mixture. Repeat with all of the cannelloni filling up the tray with one layer. Then add another third of the pasta sauce and add another layer of filled cannelloni shells on top. Top with the remaining third of the tomato sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella and bake for 50 minutes. If it browns too quickly add foil on top. Allow to sit for an hour before slicing up.