A “lighter” unconventional version of lasagna.
The beef lasagna is exceptional but very heavy – lots of sauce and cheese. Sometimes I feel like eating a more beef-focused dish, with less pasta and sauce. The following beef cannelloni is just that – a dish that has much more beef to sauce and pasta ratio. You can make the same recipe with lasagna sheets instead of the cannelloni, but I find that the cannelloni’s shape fits it better.
I chose to fill the cannelloni with beef without tomato sauce or cheese to get a lighter feel. To make the beef stick better to itself I decided to add mashed potato – it affects the taste only slightly but improves the texture to fit better as a filling for the cannelloni.
You can make each part of the dish in advance – but don’t fill the cannelloni with beef until you use it – it may soften it and ruin its shape. In order to fill the cannelloni, I use a pastry bag, pushing the beef from one side until it fills up the whole tube.
The dish consists of four parts. Making a tomato sauce, which can be any tomato sauce you like. Preparing the beef which consists of frying it and combining it with a mashed potato. Cooking a béchamel sauce, and finally combining everything.
Equipment
- Pastry bag
Ingredients
- 0.5 kg minced beef [1 lb]
- 12 cannelloni rolls
- 1 potato
- 100 gr parmesan [3.5 oz]
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- canola oil
Bechamel Sauce
- 300 ml milk [10 oz]
- 20 gr butter [0.7 oz]
- 1 tbsp flour
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
Tomato sauce
- 400 gr crushed tomatoes [0.9 lb] (I use Mutti's)
- 130 gr tomato concentrate or paste [4.5 oz] (I use Mutti's)
- ½ onion, chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic minced
- olive oil
Instructions
- Slice the potato and place it in a pot with cold water and salt.
- Bring to a boil and cook until the potato is soft and can be mashed.
- When ready, take out the potato and mash it in a bowl.
Tomato Sauce
- While the potato is cooking, in a pot sauté the onions in olive oil until soften (if you don't like onions you can skip).
- Add the minced garlic for around 1 min, until fragrance turns from spicy to sweet.
- Added the crushed tomatoes and tomato paste, and ¼ tsp of ground nutmeg.
- Lower the heat to a simmer and let it cook for at least 30 mins stirring occasionally to prevent the sauce from burning in the bottom of the pot.
The Beef
- Fry the minced beef in a pan with a bit of oil. Use a spatula or a spoon to separate the minced beef into the smallest chunks possible. Salt the beef while in the pan.
- Add ½ tsp of ground nutmeg.
- When the beef is ready add the mashed potato, a bit at a time and combine.
- Continue adding until there is enough to make the beef connect.
Bechamel sauce
- Melt the butter in a small pot or saucepan over low heat until it stops bubbling.
- Add the garlic and sauté for a minute until fragrance turns from spicy to sweet.
- Add the milk slowly while stirring to avoid creating clumps. Add ¼ tsp of ground nutmeg.
- Bring to a boil and lower the heat.
The Cannelloni
- When the beef is cold enough, place it in a pastry bag.
- Feel each cannelloni with the beef. While holding the cannelloni, fill it from one side until it fills the whole tube.
- In an oven dish, place the tomato sauce until a height of about half the cannelloni size.
- Place the cannelloni with some space between them (about ⅓ of the cannelloni size) to allow them to expand a bit.
- Pour the béchamel sauce evenly on the cannelloni.
- Sprinkle the parmesan cheese above the cannelloni.
- Place the dish uncovered in an oven preheated to 180°C(360°F) for around 25 minutes, until the parmesan browns a bit but doesn't burn.
