Beef Cannelloni

I have to confess due to our camping on the weekend I did not think ahead about this weeks meals. So when I spotted this recipe for beef cannelloni on Frills in the Hills I decided to make it for dinner. I already have a spinach and ricotta cannelloni recipe I love but I have yet to master the beef version.

Firstly I made some pasta. It is cut into small rectangles and filled with the beef, ricotta, baby spinach and parmesan mixture. I made up a tomato sauce by softening some garlic and spring onion in some olive oil before adding a tin of diced tomatoes, fresh basil and oregano. I let this simmer down and then seasoned.

To assemble I put a little of the tomato sauce on the bottom and added a layer of cannelloni and then more tomato sauce and cannelloni. I topped the whole dish off with some cheese sauce made the way my mum taught me (Melt butter and add some cornflour, mix to a paste before slowly adding milk being sure to dissolve the paste as you go, stir continuously until thick, mix in grated cheese and season). The cannelloni is then baked under foil for 30 minutes and foil removed to brown up.

It was really delicious, the filling was light and tasty and the pasta just melted in your mouth. I do prefer my vegetarian version but I am always looking for interesting ways to cook red meat. The exciting part for me was using freshly made pasta, I have always bought the dried tubes for cannelloni but the fresh pasta made it fabulous.