I was never a big fan of lasagna because there are too many layers of the pasta itself, and I’m not so into carbs. So here, I made an alternative for protein lovers or merely those on a perennial diet–Creamy Beef and Spinach Cannelloni.
This cylindrical type of pasta, though, is easier to prepare. You stuff them with meat, cover them with lots of béchamel and more sauce, and then place them in the oven. It’s also so much lighter on the stomach.
Creamy Beef and Spinach Cannelloni
Print RecipeIngredients
- Pasta Ingredients
- No boil cannelloni
- Tomato Sauce Ingredients
- 2 cans of whole peeled tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoons of chopped basil
- 4 tablespoons of tomato sauce
- ½ tablespoon of sugar
- A dash of Spanish paprika
- Béchamel Sauce Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon of flour
- 3 tablespoons of butter
- 1½ tetra packs of whole milk
- A dash of nutmeg
- Grated gruyere cheese
- Stuffing Ingredients
- 2 cups of spinach
- 150 grams of ground beef
- ½ cup of cream
- ½ cup of bechamel
- A dash of garlic powder and onion powder
- Mozzarella and gruyere to top
Instructions
- Prepare béchamel like how you prepare gravy: melt butter, add flour, add milk, cinnamon and gruyere. Then set aside.
- Let all the ingredients for the tomato sauce simmer in a pot for 30 minutes. Then set aside.
- Sauce beef in a little olive oil, toss in spinach when beef is cooked until wilted. Add in cream and béchamel, a dash of onion and garlic powder.
- Allow to simmer for a bit, then remove from heat.
- To assemble, preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius.
- Place tomato all over the bottom of an oven-safe dish.
- Using a teaspoon, stuff cannelloni with just enough spinach beef mixture and let them lie on the dish making sure to leave space between each cannelloni so they don’t stick together.
- Top with a mixture of béchamel and some more beef spinach mixture if you have excess.
- Pour all leftover tomato sauce around the cannellonis.
- Cover the pasta with aluminium foil and bake for 40 minutes.
- Check if the cannelloni has cooked through, meaning they’re like pasta soft already, if not covered, and leave longer.
- If it’s cooked, discard foil, top with mozzarella and gruyere and crank up your oven to max or to broil.
- Wait until cheese has completely melted.
- You can do these last two steps just a few mins before serving if you’re planning to make this dish ahead.
- Serve them warm with crusty bread and a glass of bubbly or sparkling wine.
