Yummy Cannelloni

So I follow this blog called "This week for dinner" and I was browsing through it and found this one. I thought it sounded good and different enough that I wouldn't be bored of the flavor. Here is the recipe that I got from the blog. Her words are in black and mine are in red

Cannelloni

Cannelloni is one of my favorite things to order at an Italian restaurant. Which means I had to figure out a way to make it at home, of course! I gave it a try this week and it was so so yummy. Here’s what I did!

Cannelloni
FILLING: will fill ~8 cannelloni, maybe up to 10
- 1 chicken breast, cooked & shredded
- 1/4 C fresh, shredded parmesan cheese
- 1 C ricotta cheese ( I didn't have ricotta so I used feta, Mindy said to substitute cottage cheese instead next time because they are more similar)
- 1/2 C shredded mozzarella (I swear I thought I had mozzarella but I didn't so I used shredded chedder)
- 1 Egg, beaten
- 1 garlic clove, minced or use garlic press ( I have the already minced garlic you buy in a jar)
- 1 T chopped fresh basil (maybe a little more than 1 T) ( I didn't use fresh and only added 2 tsp)
- 1/4 t pepper
- 1/2 t salt

SAUCE:
- 1 1/2 C jarred marinara (you could make your own, but this is faster and tasted great)
- 1/2 C cream
- 24 grape tomatoes, smashed up a bit (I pulsed in the blender a few times) (I just got regular tomatoes and used about 5, probably each was about the size of 3 plum tomatoes, I chopped and I we really liked the chunks of fresh-tasting tomatoes)
- 1/4 – 1/2 C shredded asiago cheese (so... all I could find was something that had three different cheeses in it by the feta cheese that looked like it was in a parmesian container but one of the cheeses in it was asiago... it was good enough)

SHELLS:
Ideally I suppose you make your own pasta, roll it into thin sheets and cut into rectangles. Yeah, THAT’S gonna happen around here….so, I tried two readily-available pastas.

All I did was get the regular lasagna noodles and boil them for 3-4 minutes then pulled them out and rolled them up. Make sure to boil AT LEAST 3 minutes or they will crack. Only pull one out at a time and roll up or they get cold and CRACK. I boiled 3-5 at a time. I ended up making 12 rolls... I guess I didn't fill them up as much as I should have but it was really good still. AND I used a 6 x 9 glass baking dish and they fit perfectly. Okay that is ALL the changes I made...

Barilla No-Boil Homemade Style (Flat) Lasagna Noodles: These were PERFECT. Boil 3 minutes, CAREFULLY remove from the water (it’s easy to crack them in the middle, so be gentle!). Filling them is a cinch…just lay the rectangle out portrait (you know, tall-wise), lay your filling across the noodle near the end, then roll up! (I had a few cracks when I took them out of the water, but the noodle overlaps itself when you roll it up, so it wasn’t a problem) Pictured RIGHT.

Manicotti Shells: I also tried manicotti shells. They didn’t taste quite as good, and they’re harder to stuff. So, I will definitely do the flat, no-boil lasagna noodles from now on. Pictured LEFT.

DIRECTIONS:
Mix filling ingredients.

Mix sauce ingredients and warm on the stove (doesn’t need to cook too long or get too hot).

Spray a rectangular casserole dish or metal cake pan with spray oil. Stuff cannelloni (see noodle descriptions above). Place stuffed cannelloni in the pan. Cover with sauce.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Mangia!

Makes approximately 8 cannelloni…Nate and I each ate 2, and the girls had 1 each. Fed our family of 4 with 2 cannelloni left over.