Pork, Veal & Spinach Cannelloni

Pork, veal and spinach Cannelloni

 I mixed a few different recipes together to make this one, hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Ingredients  

Filling:

-       500g Pork & Veal Mince

-       280g Spinach Leaves

-       1x Leek

-       1x Onion

-       2x Garlic (crushed)

-       Salt & pepper

-       Parsley

-       Packet of cannelloni tubes (make your own if you have time)

-       1-2 eggs

-       ¼ cup Bread Crumbs

-       Cheese, easy to use the same cheese as you’re topping the dish with, I used mozzarella

Sauce:

(Feel free to make any variation of your favourite red sauce sugo. I used pretty much whatever veggies I had in the fridge to bulk it up. (*Side note: if you make a large quantity, its always great to have some frozen for other meals*)

-       Passata, diced good quality tinned tomato’s

-       Salt & pepper

-       Onion

-       Garlic

-       Carrot

-       Celery

-       Bacon (optional)

-       Red wine (optional)

-       Herbs; thyme, rosemary bay leaves, parsley (not optional)

Topping:

-       You can either make a Béchamel sauce or simply top with a thin layer of cheese, mozzarella, parmesan etc. I used cheese!

Method:

*Preheat oven to 180 degrees fan forced*

1-    For the filling: Cook off onion, garlic and leek until softened. Add the mince, salt & pepper and herbs and cook until browned. Roughly chop the whole packet of spinach leaves and add to the mixture, allowing to wilt. Transfer to a large heat proof bowl and allow to cool. (Start on the sauce whilst cooling)

2-    I’m sure you all know how to make a basic red sauce, if not: Fry off onion and garlic (bacon optional. Once browned and fragrant, add your diced carrot, celery, passata, tins of tomato’s and a splash of red wine and allow to simmer on a low heat. Once combined add your herbs to taste. (The longer this can simmer the better, also go heavy on the salt and pepper!)

3-    Back to the filling! Combine the bread crumbs, egg and cheese together in the bowl and mix well with your hands.

4-    Set out your cannelloni tubes in the bottom of a baking tray so you can see how many fit. Gently stuff each tube with the mixture, placing them back into the baking tray until they are all stuffed.

5-    Pour the sauce over the entire tray, covering all the tubes. Top with a nice layer of cheese then cover with foil.

6-    Cover the dish with foil and pop it into the oven an bake for roughly 15-20mins. Take the foil off and crank the oven up to 220 degrees for a further 5 minutes up to crisp up the cheese.

7- Take out of the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes. Serve with a simple crunchy salad! (You can also make this ahead of time and let sit in the fridge with the foil on until you’re ready to cook and serve.