I love Italian food. And I am sure that would be quite evident from the number of Pasta dishes I post on this blog. Pasta is made atleast once a week in our house and it is something both the husband and I love. Apart from the usual fusilli, penne and the likes I simply love Lasagna. That said, it is a bit time consuming due to the different ingredients and the texture combinations. I usually reserve it for special occasions. While I had been looking for a way to use those lasagna sheets, the idea of cannelloni came up after watching it on a TV show. I decided to use the ingredients I had at home and went ahead with spinach and sweetcorn. This dish can be made without the sweetcorn or with mushrooms. I thought that spinach gave this creamy dish an added texture and would recommend to use it. The procedure itself is quite simple. You make the red sauce or the Marinara sauce. You make the white sauce or the Béchamel sauce. I reserved the use of cheese only to top the prepared Cannelloni before I baked it. My version of Béchamel sauce is quite low calorie as I seldom use butter or cheese – it turns out creamy still. Again, the Marinara sauce is my version of it and I prefer making these sauces at home, rather than going for store bought. Once the sauces are prepared and the veggies are cooked, all you need to do is it set it in your bake-cum-serve ware and pop it into the oven to have a creamy bubbly cheesy pasta – right in the comfort of your home.
Note –
Follow the instructions at the back of the Lasagna pack while cooking the pasta. The sheets might stick together, so use ½ teaspoon of olive oil. Store bought red and white sauce can be used to quicken the preparation. Instead of making tomato puree at home, one can used packaged puree. The baking times differ between different ovens. Keep checking to ensure the cheese doesn’t burn. Feel free to add more cheese at different layers. I make this an exception to our usual low calorie diet and hence used cheese only to top the pasta before baking.
