Cannelloni, along with lasagna, are typical preparations for holidays and special occasions. We can use either classic dry pasta cannelloni or fresh pasta sheets (which we can buy or make by hand). The base for cooking is a very delicate béchamel that does not hide the flavor of the ricotta nor the broccoli. It’s an important dish, but at the same time very easy and can be prepared in advance. For instance, I blanch the broccoli and prepare the béchamel the day before. This gives me more free time and I only have to focus on assembling the cannelloni and cooking them (if desired, this too can be done in advance). It’s a recipe that can be customized with what we like. Sometimes, I substitute pecorino with grated parmesan or add some crushed walnuts or pistachios, giving the cannelloni with ricotta and broccoli filling a rustic note that I enjoy.
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 4 people
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Fall, Winter and Spring, Christmas
Ingredients
- 8 fresh pasta sheets (or 16 dry pasta cannelloni)
- 2.2 lbs Broccoli
- 1 clove Garlic
- to taste Extra virgin olive oil
- 9 oz Sheep's ricotta
- 3 tablespoons Pecorino romano
- 2.5 cups milk
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- to taste nutmeg
- to taste fine salt
- to taste pepper
Preparation
With these quantities, we will get 16 cannelloni for 4 people.
Let’s start with the broccoli. After washing and cleaning them from wilted leaves and flowers, cut the stems into chunks, divide larger flowers into two or more parts, wash them, and put everything in a pot with cold water, enough to cover them. Bring to a boil and let them cook for another 5 minutes.
Drain them and place them in a large skillet, in which you will have heated a bit of extra virgin olive oil with garlic. Pour in the broccoli, season with salt, and sauté over high heat for a minute, then continue cooking over low heat, covered, for about 5 more minutes or until the broccoli stems are tender.
The light idea. We can skip this step and make the preparation a bit lighter by using simply boiled and tender broccoli.
Let’s take care of the béchamel, for the procedure you can read here. Once ready, let it cool. Salt the béchamel only if necessary, as sheep ricotta and pecorino romano are already very salty.
Prepare the filling. Using only a fork, mash the very soft broccoli and mix them with the ricotta (or use a blender if you desire a creamy filling), adding a generous tablespoon of grated pecorino; we will get a delicious cream.
Set aside a few broccoli flowers for the final decoration.
Taste and adjust the pepper. The filling can also be enriched with crushed walnuts, pistachios; or fresh pancetta or sausage.
Prepare a large baking dish (the cannelloni should not be overlapped), moisten the bottom with some béchamel, and preheat the oven to 392°F.
To fill the dry cannelloni, without wasting any filling, I recommend using a pastry bag.
If instead we use fresh pasta: lay each sheet on a cutting board and cut it in half, to obtain 16 squares to fill with the ricotta and broccoli cream. Roll up each filled square and lay it in the baking dish with the seam facing the bottom.
To facilitate the sealing of the cannelloni, we can brush some béchamel along the edges of the pasta squares. Continue until all ingredients are used.
Drizzle the remaining béchamel over our cannelloni, sprinkle with the remaining pecorino, and bake in the middle rack for about 20 minutes at 392°F.
Using hot béchamel on the cannelloni, especially if fresh pasta, will halve the cooking times.
At the end of cooking, turn on the grill to allow a crust to form. Serve our cannelloni with ricotta and broccoli filling, decorating them with the reserved broccoli flowers.
Bon appetit
