Spinach And Ricotta Cannelloni

Ingredients

• 1 small red onion
• 25g butter or margarine
• 2 x 225 g packs of spinach
• fresh or dried thyme (mixed herbs would do)
• 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• Salt and Pepper
• 15ml oil
• 250g mushrooms
• 20g. dried porcini mushrooms (these are expensive so could use more of a different variety)
• 250g ricotta cheese
• 65g parmesan cheese
• pack of dried cannelloni
• 350g jar of tomato & basil sauce (Loyd Grosman or I think Sainsbury’s do their own now)
• 400g can chopped tomatoes

Method

1. Fry the finely chopped onion in the butter over a low heat for 5-7 minutes until soft not brown
2. Add the spinach, thyme and seasoning. Cook for 3 minutes until the spinach has wilted. You’ll need a large pan for this, although spinach wilts quickly if you give it a few stirs. Place in a bowl and set aside.
3. Sauté the garlic and sliced mushrooms for 5 minutes. Add the porcini mushrooms (these need to be soaked first, see pack for details) for 10 minutes adding the soaking liquid or a little water if necessary.
4. Allow to cool. Place both the onion/spinach mixture and the mushroom mixture in a food processor and mix until smooth.
5. Mix the parmesan and ricotta cheese together and add to mixture.
6. Butter an ovenproof dish. Fill a piping bag with some of the mixture and pipe into the cannelloni and place in the dish.
7. Combine the tomatoes and the tomato and basil sauce together. Pour over the cannelloni. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 200ºC