Monday, September 6, 2010

veggie (well almost!) cannelloni

I know that some people regard him as a bit of a prat. But if you have ever used any of Jamie Oliver's recipes you'll know that he's pretty much excellent, almost all of the time. I like his enthusiasm, and I'm really liking the "at home" series and book that comes with it. Here's one of his recipes, with (most unusual for me) almost no variation from the printed word.

Cook broccoli and cauliflower florets in salted water for a few min and drain, keeping the liquid. Fry some finely chopped garlic for a few seconds and then add anchovies, (and their oil), some thyme leaves, a crumbled dry chilli, and fry for a few more seconds before adding the veggies and a small amount of the cooking water, and stew slowly for 20 min. Add more of the veggie water if it looks too dry. Keep the lid off for the last few minutes to evaporate any excess liquid off. Season.

Mash the resulting stew to a smooth paste and spread over a plate or oven tray to cool.


Meanwhile, spread a layer of passata over an oven dish with a splash of wine vinegar.

When the vegetable paste has cooled, pipe it into the cannelloni,

and put the filled cannelloni on top of the passata.

Cover the pasta with basil leaves

and then a white sauce made of creme fraiche, grated parmesan and seasoning.

Grate more parmesan over the top and spread some torn mozzarella on top.

Then bake at 190degC for about 40min.

Here's how it looked after baking, all bubbly and delightful:


And here's how it tasted: Superb! The chilli was hotter than anticipated, which certainly was noticed by LW, and I will modify next time I do this dish, but I will certainly cook it again.

3 comments:

  1. I LOVED it - even the spiciness ( sort of!)

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  2. Yum! I love cannelloni, haven't had it for a while, might have to try this recipe next week. I love Jamie Oliver's recipes and enjoyed the early shows though did find him getting a bit too precocious in the later ones - the one thing I find is that it is possible to reduce the amount of oil in lots of his recipes significantly, and since his tend to be more 'normal' meals than 'special' meals I prefer to make them healthier if I can. But yum!

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  3. Looks lovely. I think there is a lot of snobbery in cooking. Old Jamie got overexposed and people got a bit sick of him when he started to get a little bit preachy. What he was saying was sound in my opinion but the british don't like being told what to do. I think his genius is how simple he makes things seem and his recipe books are always really well written and simple to follow. I think Nigella Lawson is in a similar category, all her cook books are excellent. BTW I like Annabelle Langbein's new series because she too makes it look doable. She is maybe bit too stylised to attract the overseas market but cannot fault the dishes. The homemade marshmallows will definitely be given a go!

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