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SPINACH, RICOTTA AND BASIL PESTO CANNELLONI

Baked cannelloni is a great dish to make in advance, as it gets better when left in the fridge for a day or two. So it’s perfect for a make-ahead family meal on a weeknight, or a treat at the weekend. The trick to making cannelloni is to ensure there is enough liquid during cooking for the dried pasta to absorb, as well as to coat the pasta tubes for serving. Cottage cheese works as a great substitute for ricotta, too, and can add a little more texture to the overall dish.

Serves: 4–6

Preparation time: around 1 hour

Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes

500g baby spinach leaves

500g ricotta cheese, drained

200g grated Cheddar cheese

½ nutmeg, finely grated

250g dried cannelloni tubes

100g grated Gruyère cheese

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

FOR THE TOMATO SAUCE

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 onion, sliced

1 garlic clove, crushed

400g tomato passata or 1 × 400g tin chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato purée

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

50ml Vegetable Stock

FOR THE WHITE SAUCE

600ml milk

1 small onion, peeled but left whole

10 cloves

1 bay leaf

50g butter

50g plain flour

FOR THE BASIL PESTO

40g pine nuts

1 bunch of basil, leaves only

30g grated Parmesan cheese

2 garlic cloves, crushed

100ml olive oil

Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6.

To make the tomato sauce, heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat and add the onion and garlic. Cook for 10 minutes until soft and golden, stirring frequently. Add the remaining sauce ingredients, season with sea salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Cook over medium heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a blender or use a stick blender to blitz the sauce to a smooth consistency, then leave to cool.

While the tomato sauce is cooking, make the white sauce. Put the milk in a small saucepan, stud the onion with the cloves and add it to the milk along with the bay leaf. Gently bring to the boil over low heat. Remove from the heat and leave to infuse for a few minutes before removing the bay leaf and onion.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat and add the flour and a pinch each of sea salt and pepper. Cook for about 1 minute to get rid of the floury taste, but avoid letting it brown. Add a ladle of the warm milk and stir to combine. Continue adding the milk, a little at a time, until it’s all incorporated. Bring to the boil then simmer gently for a few minutes, until you have a thick pouring sauce. Keep warm, over very low heat or off the heat covered with a lid, while you prepare the rest of the ingredients for the cannelloni.

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and blanch the spinach for l minute. Refresh under cold running water and drain well. Squeeze out the excess moisture from the leaves and roughly chop.

Mix the ricotta with the Cheddar cheese and grated nutmeg in a bowl and season to taste with sea salt and pepper. Add the spinach and mix well.

To make the basil pesto, put the pine nuts on a baking tray and toast them in the oven for 6 minutes, shaking the tray halfway through. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, and reduce the oven temperature to 190°C/170°C fan/gas 5. Put the basil, Parmesan, garlic, oil and toasted pine nuts in a blender and blitz to form a chunky pesto. Season well.

Put the ricotta and spinach mix in a piping bag and pipe it into the cannelloni tubes. Lay the filled cannelloni tubes in one layer in a large lasagne dish and cover with a layer of tomato sauce and basil pesto. Cover the cannelloni with the cheese sauce, scatter over the grated Gruyère and season with sea salt and pepper.

Bake for 45–50 minutes until the sauce is bubbling and the pasta is al dente.