Published: · Updated: by Peter G · This post may contain affiliate links · Leave a Comment
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Honeycomb cannelloni is a very different take on a classic Italian dish. This version uses cooked chorizo, olives and feta cheese.
Nothing like adding another dish to thepastaarchives!
And I believe that my take on honeycomb cannelloni will satisfy all yourcarb cravings!
If you think you know cannelloni, think again. The presentation of this dish alone makes it a worthwhile member of the "ooh and aah" club.
I'd seen Jamie Oliver do a version of this honeycomb cannelloni and wanted to attempt it myself. Somehow Jamie's version looks effortless when you watch him from the comfort of your living room
🥘 Ingredients
2 tablespoon olive oil
250 g cooked chorizo, diced into 1cm chunks
1 red onion, finely diced
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 rib of celery, finely diced
400 g canned tomatoes
150 g baby spinach
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 pinch salt
75 g Kalamata olives, pitted and sliced in half
50 g feta cheese, crumbled
¼ cup Parmesan cheese
250 g cannelloni
🔪 Instructions
Make your sauce and layer it on the bottom of your pot.
Insert the cannelloni tubes to form the "honeycomb" pattern.
Add the remainder of your sauce making sure it smothers all the tubes.
Top with grated cheese and bake.
Allow the honeycomb cannelloni to cool for 15 minutes before serving.
Make sure your baking dish is wide and long enough to hold the tubes upright. Mine was a little short, and the top part of the cannelloni was a little on the crispy side, but they were still edible.
You can "cheat" by tossing the tubes in the pasta sauce before stacking them vertically in the dish.
Be bold with the flavours. You don't necessarily have to go overboard with crazy combinations.
📖 Variations
If you find the honeycomb cannelloni too hard - then try some of my other past dishes on the blog.
How about a quick dish ofspaghetti with cauliflower?
Don't like cauliflower? Then make thisspaghetti with artichokes
My personal favourite is the Sicilan classic of Pasta Alla Norma
📋 Recipe
Honeycomb Cannelloni Recipe
Author: Peter G
Turn your regular, boring cannelloni dish into something more exciting like this honeycomb cannelloni.
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and fry of the chorizo until crispy. Remove the chorizo and set aside.
In the same pan add 1 extra tablespoon of olive oil and add the onion, carrot and celery. Cook until translucent. Add the tomatoes and spinach and cook for a few mins. until the spinach has wilted. Add the paprika, season and then add the cooked chorizo. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer and cook for half an hour. (In the last 5 mins. stir through the olives).
To prepare the cannelloni, add two spoons of the sauce to a large bowl. Toss through your dried cannelloni tubes, ensuring they are well covered with the sauce. Set aside for the moment.
Prepare a baking dish which measures 18cm in diameter by filling it ⅓ of the way up with chorizo sauce. Very gently stack your cannelloni in an upright position, ensuring they fit snugly in the dish. Add any of the remaining sauce over the tubes and around the sides.
Top with grated feta and Parmesan and cook in the oven for 30-35 mins, until the pasta is cooked through. Allow to rest for 15 mins. before serving with a green salad.
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
Cannelloni (Italian: [kannelˈloːni]; Italian for 'large reeds') are a cylindrical type of egg-based stuffed pasta generally served baked with a filling and covered by a sauce in Italian cuisine. Popular stuffings include spinach and ricotta or minced beef. The shells are then typically covered with tomato sauce.
Cannelloni does not need to be cooked before filling. The dry tubes will soften in the oven in whichever sauce that it is placed in. To get a head start on dinner, cannelloni can be filled earlier in the day (or the day before). Then follow the steps below to layer then with sauce and cheese and bake when needed.
Traditional cannolis have a simple filling of ricotta (or mascarpone), sugar, and sometimes vanilla extract. Here are a few common additions and variations: Chocolate chips or candied fruits add welcome bursts of sweetness to the filling or the shell.
An alternative to stuffing the tubes for this spinach and ricotta cannelloni is to use fresh lasagne sheets and roll each one around a line of filling.
One of the most noticeable differences between the two shapes is their texture. Manicotti pasta has ridges that give it some bite, while cannelloni is smooth and more tender. Often, restaurants will serve manicotti topped with bolognese or bechamel.
Cannelloni is in the same pasta family to lasagne, and is usually paired with the same ingredients. The only difference is that with cannelloni, the sheets are rolled around the filling, rather than layered up with it. This looks very different upon serving, and makes for a real difference in texture.
The cannelloni should be piping hot in the centre. Check by inserting a metal skewer or knife into the centre for 15 seconds -if the tip is too hot to touch when removed, it is ready! You can also use a thermometer to see if it is 72°C in the centre.
To keep the pasta from sticking together, cook your pasta in a large pot of rapidly boiling salted water and stir the pot frequently. Adding oil to the water doesn't do anything, since the oil just rises to the surface. Plenty of water, boiling rapidly and pasta that's stirred frequently are the keys.
Use these tips to ensure your cannelloni is always a success: If you use dry cannelloni tubes, the easiest way to fill them is by piping the filling into the pasta. Alternatively, use a teaspoon to push the filling into the tubes.
Filling cannelloni is actually a lot easier than it sounds. If you're using fresh lasagne sheets, simply lay them on a clean surface and cut in half crossways. Place about â…“ cup of filling along the length of each lasagne sheet and roll up to form a tube. Lay tubes side by side in the dish.
Take shells and stuff with the meat mixture. (I find it easier to use pastry bags filled with the meat mixture to stuff the shells or you can cut the end of a sandwich baggie and stuff them that way. Less messy and much faster.). Place shells in pan and pour remaining sauce of shells.
Scrape the cheese mixture into a quart-size, zip-top plastic bag. Cut one corner off the bag to make a small diagonal slit. Using the bag like a pastry bag, squirt the cheese mixture into both sides of each manicotti shell until filled. Repeat with each shell.
The Italian tube-shaped pasta called cannelloni, which is also known as manicotti in the United States, is essentially a sheet of pasta (or a crespella, the Italian equivalent of a crepe) rolled into a tube. Cannelloni, Italian for "large reeds," was invented sometime during the early 1900s.
Introduction: My name is Van Hayes, I am a thankful, friendly, smiling, calm, powerful, fine, enthusiastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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