Mennonite Girls Can Cook is a collection of recipes which were posted daily for a period of ten years from 2008 to 2018. We have over 3,000 delicious recipes that we invite you to try. The recipes can be accessed in our recipe file by category or you can use the search engine.

Recipe Search

Canelloni

This is a great make ahead meal.
Served with a salad and Marg's Rustic Italian bread or with Foccacia bread you have a lovely Italian meal nice enough to serve to company.
  • spaghetti sauce, homemade or from a jar
  • 1 500 ml carton ricotta cheese
  • 1 package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
  • 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 1 recipe Bechamel sauce (recipe follows)
  • 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
Bechamel Sauce:
  • 1/4 cup margarine or butter
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 2 cups milk
  • salt and pepper to taste
* I bought my fresh lasagne sheets at our local grocery store in the deli section. They come in a package of 8 sheets and are found with the other fresh pastas.
  1. Cut each lasagne sheet into two pieces.
  2. Bring salted water to boil in a large pot and cook lasagne sheets until just tender. This will only take a few minutes.
  3. Drain pasta and rinse well. Lay each piece out on the counter.
  4. Squeeze excess moisture from the spinach and mix together with the ricotta, 1/2 cup of the parmesan cheese and the egg. ( I actually forgot to add the egg and the filling still held together very well).
  5. Using about 2 tablespoons for each piece of pasta, form filling into a log and place on the narrow end of the pasta sheet.
  6. Roll up each forming a filled tube.
  7. Make Bechamel sauce. I usually do this in the microwave, but you can also do it on the stove. Melt butter, add flour and gradually whisk in milk. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly or microwave stirring after each minute of cooking. Cook until mixture thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  8. Put a large spoonful each of Bechamel and Spaghetti sauce in the bottom of a rectangular casserole dish.
  9. Place filled pasta tubes in 2 rows in dish.
  10. Cover with remaining spaghetti sauce.
  11. Top with remaining Bechamel sauce.
  12. Grate fresh parmesan cheese on top.
  13. Cover with foil. This can be refrigerated or frozen at this point.
  14. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, remove foil and bake for another 20-30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.
  15. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.


18 comments:

  1. Looks delicious..my family loves pasta dishes!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm taking notes...I think I'll try this one. Looks most delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a delicous meatless dinner! I think I'll try this for a potluck soon.

    ReplyDelete
  4. My cousin makes canelloni and uses crepes instead of lasagne sheets - a little more work, but very good too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I used to struggle with filling canneloni and manicotti shells the hard way . .this is so much easier. . and your recipe is easy and looks delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh, this looks delicious, and this must taste just as good. Thanks for sharing.~Ellie

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh this is making me hungry! Looks great!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh my goodness! I have always wanted to make canneloni but deemed it too fussy to bother with, you know, filling those tubes with a teaspoon and having stuff fall out on the counter and floor. Whatnot.

    Who knew you just folded the square over the filling? I am everyday in awe of your prodigious skills.

    I make a very good pasta sauce so with that I'll make this canneloni for my daughter when she returns from Asia where she is on a rice diet. (Which I think is kind of good because she is slightly gluten intolerant but since there reports NO problems after many months of rice, rice, and oh, how about some rice with that?

    anon1

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow that looks good. I'll be back. Kathy

    ReplyDelete
  10. That looks so much easier than trying to stuff shells!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I will be trying this over the weekend, just using home made pasta instead. But it sounds tasty as well as super simple. What's not to love about that?

    ReplyDelete
  12. I made this with whole wheat Lasagna. It was very good! A very nice easy way to make canelloni.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I made this for friends, and they really loved it! The only problem I had was I boiled the sheets and then drained them but did not seperate them right away, and they all stuck together! I painstakingly took them apart as best I could, but I think next time I'll try just using the sheets as they are instead of boiling them first...they seem like they'd be soft enough:) Thanks for the great recipe!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Ommigoodness! That looks so good! I am so hungry now!

    I never thought to roll it in lasagna, and I do not like stuffing shells. This is awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  15. So delicious and a lot easier than I thought it would be. Took it for a lunch at work and got lots of compliments.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Have you ever added beef to the mix? I'd like to try this recipe. Looking for something fun and different for Valentine's Day with the family, something kids AND hubby will like. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Quite tasty, but really ended up just like lasagne...which isn't all that bad I guess!

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.