Cannelloni

We were going to have lasagne. I'd made the meat sauce and preheated the oven and got a baking dish from the cupboard. We had no lasagne sheets. Back up plan was cannelloni and it was delicious.


It was also really simple and quite low in fat. Next time I'd use less white sauce, maybe 350ml rather than 500 and maybe add a little chilli to give the meat sauce a boost. It could maybe have taken a little more seasoning too.

All I did was chop an onion and a handful of mushrooms and sweated them off in a pan with some dried mixed herbs. I then browned about 500g extra lean mince, added some worcester sauce and some seasoning. Once the mince was browned I added a tin of tomatoes and a handful of sweetcorn. I reduced the liquid down to avoid having a sauce that was too watery.

The white sauce was a cheats version really. I normally make it with a roux but as I'm slimming I needed a slightly healthier version. I boiled up about 500ml of milk (though I'd suggest using less than that) and added a couple of dessert spoons of cornflour and stirred until it thickened. I seasoned it with black pepper and worcester sauce and added in about 50 grams of cheddar cheese. I also stuck a handful of spinach in there to make it a bit more interesting.

I filled dried cannelloni tubes with the meat sauce and poured the extra meat on top. I then poured the white sauce on top of that and added a tiny bit more cheddar cheese to melt on top. It was baked in the over for about 20-25 minutes (until the pasta is cooked through) at 180C.

We had ours on it's own but it'd be nice with a salad or some steamed vegetables.