Pollo e Formaggio Cannelloni a Salsa di Rosa
This is our riff on the recipe we learned a couple of weeks ago from Chef Kathyrn. Notes on her version (which is also really good) at the bottom.
2 cups tomato sauce; we used Newman's Marinara 2 cups white sauce (basamella in Italian, béchemal in French)
1 large onion, chopped 1 clove garlic, minced 1 tbsp olive oil 3/4 lb chicken breast, cubed 2 slices bacon, chopped 1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg 1/3 cup chopped parsley
1 lb ricotta cheese 1 cup grated parmesan cheese 6 cubes of frozen spinach 2 eggs
350 g fresh lasagna sheets (8 or 9 sheets); we used Duso's
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
Combine the ricotta cheese, 1 cup of parmesan cheese, spinach, and eggs. Chill while preparing sauce and meat mixture.
Heat a large pot of water to boiling to cook the pasta.
Prepare the balsamella sauce
2 tbsp olive oil 2 tbsp white flour shake salt grind black pepper 2 cups milk
Heat the olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir in the flour and seasonings, cooking and stirring for about 3 minutes. Add milk slowly and stir constantly with a whisk. Cook and stir until boiling and thick. Remove from heat.
In a large skillet, sauté onion in oil. Add garlic once onion has softened. Add chicken, bacon, nutmeg, and parsley and cook covered for about 15 minutes. Turn the mixture out onto a large cutting board, let it cool, and chop the meat more finely.
Combine the tomato and balsamella sauces to make the rosé sauce. Spread half of the sauce in the bottom of a large (15″ x 11″) baking dish.
Combine the cheese and meat mixtures.
Cook the pasta, 1 sheet at a time, for about 1 minute. Lay the cooked sheet of pasta on a tea towel, and blot it to absorb the water. Cut the sheet into 3 squares.
Spoon about 3 tablespoons of the meat and cheese mixture onto each pasta square. Roll the square around the filling and place, seam side down, in rows in the baking dish.
Spread the remaining rosé sauce over the full pan of cannelloni, and sprinkle with the mixture of mozzarella and 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese.
Bake uncovered at 350ºF for 15 minutes, then turn on the broiler for 10 minutes to form a golden crust on the top. Let stand 10 or 15 minutes before serving.
Makes about 24 cannelloni.
It’s amazing how easy it is to make a rosé sauce! Of course you could also make your own marinara sauce.
The filling is quite dry, but that’s a good thing! The flavours of all of the filling ingredients come through very nicely. And, is there such a thing as a bad crusty cheese top?
Chef Kathyrn’s version use 1 lb each of ground turkey (or chicken), and ground veal (or pork). Different groups in the class has different meat mixtures. Ours was turkey and veal. With that combination of meats, we used:
1/4 cup chopped parsley 1 cup ricotta cheese 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
in the filling.