Bea’s friend asked me for the recipe for cannelloni, but the truth is that there isn’t a specific recipe for cannelloni. Everyone makes them in their own way, and it can vary each time. So, I got serious and wrote down everything I did. The filling turned out exquisite.
Here’s how I made them.
The ingredients:
- Beef and pork neck meat in equal parts; you can also add the same amount of chicken or hen meat.
- Liver
- Celery
- Onion
- Carrot
- Leek
The liver is added to make the filling more creamy. If your pockets are deep, you can use foie gras mi-cuit. If the liver flavor is too strong, you can use lamb brains, which are delicious!
In this case, I used about 300 grams of each meat, 150 grams of liver, and the vegetables shown in the photo. This quantity should be enough for around 20 cannelloni.
If you’re using a food processor, there’s no need to finely chop the vegetables. However, if you’re chopping by hand, as I did in this case, it’s best to use a mandoline to slice them very thinly to avoid having to do it by hand later.
Cut the meat into large pieces:
And to begin, put the meat in the pot with some oil to brown it well. Then add the vegetables and let them sauté for a bit.
Next, add some aged wine (essential). If you don’t have aged wine, you can use a fortified wine like sherry.
I poured in a couple of glasses like the one in the picture and then water (better chicken broth but i didn’t have).
Cover this and let it simmer over low heat for a good while, just enough for it to simmer. I had it for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. The liver was only in there for the last 5 minutes. The result:
What’s left in the pot is strained, and the solids are chopped (in our case, only the meat because the vegetables are already done). With the liquid, you make the brown béchamel, which I’ll explain below. It starts like this:
You leave it like that:
Chopping by hand is by far the best; I like to feel the texture of the meat. If using a machine, set it to the largest size and only pass it through once.
Once everything is chopped, knead it all by hand until it has a pasty consistency. Now it’s time to add the liver (the liver is mashed with a fork) and the brown béchamel.
What is brown béchamel?
It’s a béchamel that, instead of being made with milk, is made with the remaining broth:
I thought there was too much broth, so I reduced it for a while before making the brown béchamel. It turned out with an impressive flavor. I added that to the mixture of chopped meats and vegetables, and that was the end of the filling. It was delicious; you had to restrain yourself to leave some for the cannelloni.
I put it in a pastry bag and then into the freezer, where I’ll take it out on the day I’m going to assemble the cannelloni.
I missed some details: salt and pepper, to taste.
For the white béchamel that covers the cannelloni, it’s better to keep it light (70g of flour per liter of milk and 70g or less of butter). Typically, white béchamel is flavored with nutmeg, and you can also add truffle if you like.
As for cheese for gratin, I prefer Parmesan. I like Emmental, but it seems a bit too strong for this; you should try and see what suits your taste.
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