This is one of those recipes you wish you'd known before. It's similar to Bolognese sauce, but different. First, the filling is made, then it's cooked on the barbecue—or in your oven or other heat source.
Ingredients:
- Olive oil
- Cannelloni pasta
- 750g half-and-half minced meat (or 400g ground beef and 350g Italian sausage from the casing)
- Pancetta cubes 200g
- 1 carrot, grated
- 1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
- 1 white onion, thinly sliced
- 2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 or 2 cups of your favorite tomato sauce
- 1 cup béchamel sauce
- Parmesan cheese or a nice old Dutch cheese
- glass of red wine
- glass of water or broth
- salt and pepper to taste
- spices to taste - Classically, this recipe is prepared with a pinch of cinnamon and clove powder
- flat-leaf parsley
Preparation method
- Heat a Dutch oven over medium heat with some olive oil
- Fry the onions, garlic and a pinch of salt until the onions become slightly transparent.
- Add the celery and carrots and stir well.
- Now add the minced meat with the herbs (make sure the pan stays nice and hot) and brown the minced meat together with the onion mixture (if you have a smaller Dutch oven, you can first remove the onion mixture to brown the minced meat).
- Once the ground meat is browned, add the wine. Stir well and then add the water. The meat should be just covered; add more wine and/or water if necessary to bring it to this level.
- Let this simmer for about 15 minutes and then add the tomato sauce.
- Stir everything well and let it simmer for 30 to 60 minutes. It will now resemble Bolognese sauce.
- Once it's done, stir in some chopped parsley.
- Prepare the BBQ for indirect cooking at 180°C
- Spoon some tomato sauce onto the bottom of the baking dish.
- Take a cannelloni shell and fill it with the minced meat mixture (not ice cold, warm from the pan is best) and place the filled cannelloni in the oven dish.
- Repeat this until the bowl is full.
- Scoop a few more spoonfuls of the minced meat around the cannelloni and sprinkle with the grated cheese.
- Now it's time for your béchamel sauce. Pour it over the cannelloni until they're completely covered, and grate a little cheese over it.
- Cook the dish on the BBQ for about 45 minutes until a nice golden brown crust forms on the béchamel sauce.
Come to the table!
