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Cannelloni with minced meat in oven

Baked Cannelloni with Ground Meat

Distinctive, mouthwatering, for dinner — a feast any day of the week! Cannelloni baked with ground meat is a well-known Italian dish: large pasta tubes stuffed with meat. Baked cannelloni tastes a lot like lasagna, with the same béchamel and bolognese sauces.

Anna

Recipe author

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Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Milk

800

Butter

Flour

Salt

0.5

Nutmeg (a knife-tip's worth)

Cannelloni

150

Ground meat

600

Onion

0.5

Garlic

Tomato sauce

300

Hard cheese

100

Dry spices

Salt

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 21 % 7 g

Fats 42 % 14 g

Carbohydrates 36 % 12 g

207 kcal

GI: 58 / 25 / 17

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you bake cannelloni with ground meat in the oven? Get your ingredients ready. Any ground meat works, but for a more "Italian" flavor, beef is preferable. You can swap the tomato sauce for tomatoes in their own juice (which is what I use), ketchup, or tomato paste (2 tbsp). For spices, I use Italian herbs — basil, oregano, and rosemary also work well. Use any hard cheese; I use Parmesan.
Step 2:

Peel the onion and garlic, chop them finely, and fry them in oil over low heat until translucent. Then add the ground meat to the pan and mash it well with a wooden spatula, breaking up any large clumps. Fry the meat for 5–7 minutes, until it changes color.
Step 3:

Add the tomato sauce or the tomatoes in their own juice to the meat (watch out for large tomato pieces here — they'll get in the way when you stuff the pasta). Add salt to taste, ground black pepper, and dry herbs. Stir and simmer the meat sauce over medium heat until the liquid evaporates. This takes 5–10 minutes, depending on how much liquid was in the tomato sauce. Set the finished meat filling aside to cool.
Step 4:

Meanwhile, make the béchamel sauce. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the flour and, stirring constantly, cook it for a couple of minutes. Warm the milk and pour it into the flour mixture in stages, stirring constantly (a whisk works best). Bring the sauce to a boil over medium heat and season with salt and spices. Cook it, stirring continuously, for 3–5 minutes, until slightly thickened. Then set the sauce aside to cool.
Step 5:

Fill the cannelloni with the cooled meat. Pack in enough filling to fill the tubes completely, but try not to break them. It's easy to stuff the cannelloni by standing them upright on a plate. Turn the oven on to preheat to 180°C (355°F).
Step 6:

Choose your baking dish carefully — size it so the cannelloni fit in a single layer, ideally snug against one another. Pour béchamel sauce into the dish to fully cover the bottom. Arrange the stuffed pasta in a single layer.
Step 7:

If needed, you can lay the cannelloni out at random, but always in a single layer, so they're fully covered with sauce as they bake.
Step 8:

Pour the remaining béchamel sauce over the cannelloni. Without sauce, the pasta can dry out in the oven and won't taste good. Sprinkle grated cheese on top. Put the dish in the preheated oven for 30–35 minutes, until a golden crust forms.
Step 9:

Take the finished cannelloni out of the oven and let it cool a little. Cut it into portions with a knife and serve. Enjoy!

Use an oil with a high smoke point for frying! Any oil is good only up to a certain temperature — its smoke point, at which the oil starts to burn and toxic substances, including carcinogens, form in it. Unrefined oils, with rare exceptions, have a low smoke point — they contain many unfiltered organic particles that quickly start to burn. Refined oils are more heat-stable and have a higher smoke point. If you're going to cook in the oven, in a skillet, or on the grill, make sure you use an oil with a high smoke point. The most common high-smoke-point oils are refined sunflower, olive, and grapeseed oil.
For how to cook pasta properly, how to cook it al dente, how to choose a good product to avoid disappointment, and much more, read the article "Pasta and noodles — the fine points of choosing and the secrets of cooking."
Keep in mind that every oven is different. The temperature and cooking time may differ from what's given in the recipe. To make any baked dish a success, use the helpful information about the quirks of ovens!