The Daring Cook's June 2012: Cannelloni

So excited about this month's Daring Cooks' challenge...why you may ask...well just because I made bacon for the first time and I wanted to include it in another recipe. And this month's challenge was perfect! I bought around 1.5 kg of pork belly skin on and followed this recipe. Manu from Manu's Menu was our Daring Cooks lovely June hostess and has challenged us to make traditional Italian cannelloni from scratch! We were taught how to make the pasta, filling, and sauces shared with us from her own and her family's treasured recipes!

EGG PASTA

100 grams (2/3 cups + 2 teaspoons) All-purpose Flour

1 large Egg

Directions:

1. Put the flour and egg in a food processor and mix. When the dough looks like crumbs pour it onto the bench top sprinkled with a little flour. Knead well by hand until you obtain a smooth dough. Make it into a ball, wrap it in cling wrap and let rest for 10-15 minutes.

2. Now you are ready to make your egg pasta. Cut out a piece of egg pasta flatten it into a rectangular shape with your hands. Put a little flour on it and begin passing it through a pasta machine. Turn the dial to the widest setting (#1) and starting with one of the shorter sides of the rectangle, feed it through the rollers. Now fold one side of the piece of dough into the middle then fold the other side over to make 3 layers. Starting with one of the narrower sides of the dough feed the pasta again at the widest setting. Repeat the folding and and rolling technique on the widest setting for at least a couple of times.

3. Now you can start rolling it thinner by turning the dial to the next narrowest setting (#2). Roll the pasta through the machine without folding the dough between settings. Keep reducing the settings until #7. If the sheet of pasta gets too long, you can cut it in half with a knife. To make cannelloni cut out rectangular pasta sheets (10x15cm) or (4"x6").

*You can do this without a pasta machine, just roll the sheets thinly with a rolling pin and cut into rectangles.

BECHAMEL SAUCE

2 cups (500 ml) Milk, hot

3 1/2 Tablespoons (50 grams) Butter

1/3 cup (50 grams) All-purpose Flour

1 pinch salt

1 pinch nutmeg

Directions:

1. Put the butter in a non-stick pot and let it melt. Add the flour and whisk constantly until well incorporated: this is the "roux" let it cook for a minute or two.

2. Now start adding hot milk little by little, while mixing continuously until milk is well incorporated. Do not add more milk unless it is well incorporated, keep doing so until all the milk is incorporated.

3. Add salt and nutmeg and cook it on low flame for 10 minutes until it thickens.
I got Manu's recipes for the egg pasta and the bechamel but I made my own tomato sauce by sauteeing 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic, 1 minced red onion, 1/2 teaspoon of dried rosemary and 200 grams of whole peeled tomatoes (canned) for about 15 minutes. I seasoned it with a bit of salt and pepper. Then I filled my cannelloni with chopped bacon and mushrooms, rolled them and covered with bechamel and the tomato sauce and sliced mozzarella cheese and baked it in a preheated 350 degrees farenheit oven for 20 minutes.

And there you have it, Cannelloni from scratch! Thank you Manu for this month's Daring Cook's challenge, it was fun to make and delicious!

Please visit the other Daring Cooks and check out all the delicious varieties of Cannelloni that each one came up with, you won't be disappointed.