by Maria Teresa Jorge
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Maria Teresa Jorge's Notes:
Expand7 ounces minced veal Ask a question about this ingredient
7 ounces minced pork Ask a question about this ingredient
4 ounces chicken breat minced Ask a question about this ingredient
4 ounces Italian sausage without the casing and crumbled Ask a question about this ingredient
3.5 ounces Parmesan grated Ask a question about this ingredient
2 slices of Prosciutto, chopped very finely Ask a question about this ingredient
1 whole egg Ask a question about this ingredient
1/4 cup white wine Ask a question about this ingredient
nutmeg Ask a question about this ingredient
salt Ask a question about this ingredient
pepper freshly ground Ask a question about this ingredient
5 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil Ask a question about this ingredient
For the Tomato Sauce Ask a question about this ingredient
24 ounces bottle of tomato passata - see explanation at the bottom of the recipe Ask a question about this ingredient
2 garlic cloves, green inner part removed and chopped very finely Ask a question about this ingredient
1 medium red onion chopped very finely Ask a question about this ingredient
5 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil Ask a question about this ingredient
8 oven-ready lasagne noodles Ask a question about this ingredient
1/3 cup parmesan for topping cannellonis Ask a question about this ingredient
4 cups milk Ask a question about this ingredient
3 ounces all purpose flour Ask a question about this ingredient
3 ounces butter cut in small pieces Ask a question about this ingredient
salt Ask a question about this ingredient
white pepper freshly ground Ask a question about this ingredient
Chop the Prosciutto finely and set aside.
Ask a question about this stepIn a wide pan, over medium heat, add the 5 tablespoons of olive oil. Start by adding the crumbled sausage meat, stir well and let start gett some colour. Add the veal a bit at a time and stir. let start to brown. Then add the pork, a little at a time and continue browning. Finally add the chicken. The procedure is a little slow because you want to brown the meat and if you put all the meat in one go it starts to loose it's water and you end up with boiled rubbery meat instead of fryied meat.
Ask a question about this stepKeep stirring the meat until golden brown all through, add the white wine, stir, let the alcohol evaporate, season with salt, freshly ground pepper and some nutmeg. Put the meat in a colander over a bowl and allow to cool. All the excess fat and liquid will fall through the colander.
Ask a question about this stepWhen cool, put the fryied meat in a bowl, add the chopped prosciutto, the egg lightly beaten and the parmesan cheese. Mix everything very well to blend all the ingredients.
Ask a question about this stepFor the Becahmel Sauce: Warm up the milk.
Ask a question about this stepIn a medium saucepan, melt the cut up butter until it starts to get a little blond. Add the flour all at once and stir continuously over low heat until well blended.
Ask a question about this stepSlowly add the warm milk, stirring constantly (I actually prefer to use a whisk, I think it helps blending better). When it's all incorporated, continue cooking for 15 minutes over low heat. You need to cook the bechamel sauce for this amount of time to cook the flour and minimize the taste of raw flour.
Ask a question about this stepSeason with salt, freshly ground white pepper, a nice dash of freshly grated nutmeg and let cool. The bechamel should remain soft, not thick.
Ask a question about this stepFor the Tomato sauce: In a pan over medium heat add 5 tablespoons of olive oil, the 2 chopped garlics and the onion chopped very finely. Stir until the onion is translucent, Add the passata, stir, add a pinch of salt and reduce the heat to low. Allow to simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes until you have a thick tomato sauce.
Ask a question about this stepFor the cannelloni (see note at the bottom if you have dry pasta cannellonis): Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. On the side have a big bowl of cold salted water with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
Ask a question about this stepPrepare on your your work surface 2 clean kitchen tea towels (linen or cotton - not terry cloth) to drain the cooked lasagna sheets.
Ask a question about this stepAdd 2 or 3 pasta sheets a time and cook about 2 minutes.Remove each lasagne square out with a slotted spoon and dip it in a bowl with salted cold water. When cold, drain and set them on the clean kitchen tea towel, making sure they don’t overlap so they don’t stick to each other.
Ask a question about this stepPreheat oven to 350°F with rack in the middle. Prepare a 13- by 9- by 2-inch ceramic baking dish.
Ask a question about this stepDivide the meat filling on the lasagna rectangles in a line on the short side of the pasta rectangle, then roll up to close filling.
Ask a question about this stepAdd half the bechamel sauce to the tomato sauce and stir well to mix.
Ask a question about this stepCover the bottom of the baking dish with a good layer of tomato bechamel mixture.Align the rolled cannelloni's, seam side down, to baking dish, starting.on one of the ends. Finish putting all the cannellonis in the dish and cover completely with the tomato bechamel sauce.
Ask a question about this stepSprinkle generously with parmesan on top, and finish with a few tablespoons of the remainder bechamel over the tomato sauce.
Ask a question about this stepBake in the oven for 30 minutes. Turn off the oven, half open the door and leave the cannellonis to rest and the sauce will thicken a little.
Ask a question about this stepServe hot.
Ask a question about this stepNote: in Italy people use cannellonis which are large tubes of dry pasta. Because there is a lot of sauce you don't have to pre-cook them and they also absorb some liquid from the tomato sauce, which is why you need this much tomato sauce. I don't know if in the U.S you can find these large pasta tubes. If you can, use them by all means, it's much easier then making them out of lasagna. You just fill them with a small spoon or preferably with a piping bag, until the whole tube is filled with meat, then put them on the tomato sauce, cover with tomato sauce, some bechamel and bake for 30 minutes.
Ask a question about this stepTomato Passata: In Italy we have 2 different kinds of tomato sauce - one is Passata and the other is Pomarola. The Passata is fresh tomatoes, peeled and passed through a vegetable mill so you have in fact raw tomato juice. You can make it by processing canned peeled tomatoes with the liquid that comes in the tin - as easy as that! The Pomarola, or tomato sauce, is made with passata as a base, but is cooked with olive oil, onions, garlic, bay leaf, thyme, basil and sometimes some celery, salt and pepper. It is then cooked for about 45 minutes to reduce and obtain a thicker sauce that is already finished.
Ask a question about this stepI'm so sorry for the mistake, of course it's 3 oz each butter and flour.
I'm glad you liked the dish.
Many thanks for pointing this out.
Lovely recipe. Not familiar with tomato passata, so looking forward to trying this!
Thank you for your comment. Tomato passata is plain fresh or canned tomatoes uncooked. Peel and de-seed if they are fresh. If canned and unpeeled, just use a immersion blender. Or look in the supermarket for uncooked tomato sauce.
I've been able to find passata at specialty stores here in the states, as well as at Whole Foods Market. It's generally shelved near the canned tomato products, and is usually in a glass bottle.
Yes, but as you can see the tomato is kept seperate from the meat, which is very interesting. Thank you for your comment.
I am lamenting the fact that I can't make this right now. Another beautiful recipe, and thank you for sharing it.
Thank you so much for your nice comment.
As always I remain a big fan of Maria Teresa's style of cooking, especially when you get into Italy's belly, Bologna. I would add another note tomato passata is basically tomato sauce, pureed but it's on the "loose" side. Easy to find jarred in Italy. Not so easy here. You might need to thin it. But I love the combination of mixed meats in this. Grinding mortadella into your mixture gives it an exquisite creaminess only the emilians would think of.
Thank you for your comment and explanation of what Tomato passata is, I didn't know it was difficult to find in the States.
You are welcome chef. I always look forward to your recipes because we both think along the same parallels of lattitude from Portugal, to Spain to Italy.
Thank you.
Carol is a gluten-free chef and food blogger currently cooking her way through the Alinea Cookbook.
We made this last night, and the flavors are really excellent. However, I think there must be a mistake in the recipe - 30 oz of butter and 30 oz of flour is WAY too much for 4 cups of milk. After checking some other bechemel recipes, I went with ~3oz of each.