Sometimes its nice to make something that’s a little more special. Whether its for your other half or you just feel like treating yourself (why not?), this is a great recipe to adapt. There are so many recipes out there so feel free to put your own spin on it, but this is how I made mine.

This recipe feeds two hungry people. I couldn’t finish my portion but I’m sure others would! I also baked mine in individual portions because I thought it would be fun, but there’s no harm in baking it in one large dish if you are making this for the whole family.

Served with a nice fresh salad and olives, this was absolutely delicious. It almost felt like we were having a treat in a restaurant as this isn’t your every day pasta recipe.

As much as I said this is a special dish, I didn’t have loads of time to slave in the kitchen. So I cut corners and simplified the dish to my liking. A lot of recipes top cannelloni with a béchamel sauce but I topped mine with pasta sauce and cheese. Surely that’s less calories too? Hmm. It’s not traditional in the slightest but was still delicious! Anyway this is how I made mine.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 10 tubes of cannelloni
• 250g ricotta
• 120g fresh spinach
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• 25g parmesan cheese, grated
• 250g passata
• 30g cheddar cheese, grated
• pinch of chilli flakes (optional)
• small bunch fresh basil

Method:

1. Sauté 1 garlic clove and the spinach in a frying pan with some olive oil until the spinach has wilted. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Leave to cool.
2. Meanwhile, in a bowl mix the other sliced garlic clove with the passata and a small pinch of basil. Add salt and pepper to taste and a pinch of chilli flakes (optional). Layer half of this tomato sauce at the bottom of your baking dish.
3. Once the spinach has cooled, place it in a sieve and push out all of the water. Once the water has drained, chop the spinach finely.
4. In another bowl, add the ricotta, parmesan, spinach, remaining basil and salt and pepper to taste and mix.
5. Spoon the ricotta mixture into your cannelloni tubes either using a piping bag or a small spoon. Line the filled cannelloni in your baking dish on top of the pasta sauce.
6. Top the filled cannelloni with the remaining pasta sauce and then with cheddar cheese.
7. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees C for approximately 30 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and brown.
8. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, serve with a side salad, olives and enjoy!

Let me know if you give it a try!

Check out my website at www.jbimagery.co.uk to see some of my work. Thank you for reading!