You don’t have to talk to me for very long about cooking before the conversation will come around to how I think Jamie Oliver is a genius. He is a champion of non-fussy home cooking, as illustrated by the type of recipes he creates (modern takes on classics, refreshingly free from snotty attitude) and the ingredients that he chooses.
His book Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook
I’d had my eye on this recipe for honeycomb cannelloni for a while, just waiting for an excuse to make it. I caught my chance a few weeks ago, when I had the pleasure of hosting some dear old friends for a special reunion of sorts.
It had been ages since my friend Jillian and I had seen our friend Graig, who was in town visiting from the Dominican Republic, so I decided to invite them, with their significant others, over for an early supper. Jillian and her boyfriend Chris are regular visitors of the East Village Kitchen, but it was the first time that Graig had ever stepped food in my place, since he has been living in the Dominican Republic for the past four years working as the founding principal at a school there. This particular visit was even more special because Graig brought his fiancee Alice with him, and it was very exciting to meet her for the first time.
This is a pretty serious baked pasta dish, which involves anchoring cannelloni pasta (I had a bear of a time finding cannelloni, and finally had to settle on some sort of handmade, extra large pasta tubes that I think are just jumbo ziti) in layers of a delicious vegetable sauce, sauteed spinach, and a sauce of creme fraiche and Parmesan cheese (I substituted some goat cheese for part of the creme fraiche with excellent results). I was excited about taking some really dramatic finishing results of the honeycomb pattern on top, but I was so wrapped up in entertaining, I forgot to pay much attention to the photography. You’ll have to trust me that this looks really cool and tastes absolutely amazing.
Honeycomb Cannelloni
Adapted from Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook
serves 6-8
For the vegetable ragu
A small handful of dried porcini
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons olive oil
3 carrots, peeled and diced
4 sticks of celery, trimmed and finely diced
1 large red onion, peeled and finely diced
1 leek, trimmed and outer leaves discarded, finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
5 Portobello mushrooms, finely chopped
5x 14-oz cans good-quality plum tomatoes
For the spinach
For the quick white sauce
The first thing to do is find yourself a casserole pan or earthenware dish that will snugly hold all your cannelloni standing upright, as shown in the picture opposite. I used one that’s 8 inches in diameter and 5 inches deep, if you want to be precise — and in this recipe, being precise helps!
Preheat the oven to 375°F. To make your ragú, put your dried porcini in a bowl and just cover them with boiling water. Leave to soak for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, put a large heavy-based saucepan on a medium heat and add the olive oil, carrots, celery, onion and leek. Cook gently for 8 to 10 minutes, then add the garlic and Portobello mushrooms. Remove the porcini from the bowl, add them to the pan and cook for a further 5 minutes until the veg has softened. Strain the porcini liquor through a sieve and add this to the pan with a large wineglass of water. Allow the liquid to reduce slightly, then tip in your tomatoes and add your chopped basil stalks. Season with salt and pepper, and bring to the boil. Simmer for up to 45 minutes, until you have a thick, rich vegetable ragú. Tear in the basil leaves.
In a saucepan, heat a splash of oil and add the spinach, stir, then leave to wilt down. Season with salt, pepper and a grating of nutmeg and put aside.
To make your quick white sauce, all you have to do is mix the cream, crème fraîche, goat cheese, anchovies and grated Parmesan. Then check the seasoning and that’s it! Now get out that dish or pan you located at the beginning of the recipe and spoon in ½ inch of the cheese sauce. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan and top with the spinach. Carefully ladle over half your vegetable ragú and stand your cannelloni tubes in it. Press the tubes down into the sauce with the palm of your hand — the sauce will come up and half fill the tubes. Spoon over the rest of the ragú, smoothing it down into the holes. Pour over the remaining cheese sauce, sprinkle over some grated Parmesan, drizzle with olive oil and bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes until golden and bubbly. Bloomin’ tasty.
7 Comments
Have you seen his canning techniques? Makes me want to go out and can a bunch of stuff. I agree…Jamie Oliver is awesome. My Mom doesn’t like him so much, but i think it might be because he’s referred to as “the naked chef”.
I found your Web site while searching for a proper hummus recipe, and have been trying things left and right ever since!
This former New-Yorker adores your site and emails your recipe to all her friends.
Will be trying this one tomorrow!
Bloomin tasty, indeed! Thanks for the amazing dinner Lauren!
This sounds great. I’ve never really made a veggie ragu. I’ll have to give it a try.
Shannon – I was just telling someone how I plan to learn to can and pickle this spring and you just reminded me that JO is a great source for inspiration for that. Thanks!
Mona – I love getting messages from people who find any post helpful. Thanks for taking a minute to let me know.
Jillian – Anytime, mi casa, su casa.
FH – totally worth a try. In fact, I’d make just the ragu to put on pasta or veggies and skip the cream sauce and baking for an above average weekday dinner (and leftovers for lunch, of course!)
It was REALLY yummy! We loved it.
I couldn’t find canelloni tubes so just got pasta sheets and made a really sexy vegie lasagne.
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[...] doing these brownies justice, which would be a tragedy. I made them weeks ago – to round out the honeycomb cannelloni that I prepared when Graig and Alice came to visit. Back then, the weather felt like winter, [...]