Oh, cannelloni. How I love to hate thee! One of the banes of my existence as a vegetarian was spinach and ricotta encompassed by the dried tubes of packet pasta which is the second degree cop out of cafe menus the world over (I'll save the rant about spinach and ricotta generally for next time). So easy to do right, but so common to do wrong. Such is the persistence of this dish, that I hadn't even tried the version made with fresh crepes until I because privvy to the existence of the wonderful Mamma Maria's restaurant, upstairs on King Street in Newtown, NSW. Since making that discovery, I've regularly had debilitating cravings for the vegetable version of the dish (usually in the most impractical reaches of the earth, like Kailua, Hawaii; or Nara, Japan). Such was its magic, I never even dreamed of trying to conquer the construction myself... until a winter's evening when The Bloke was supposed to be having his annual pay review.
Being a stay-at-home-Bitch, I thought I'd redeem filling my days with naps and online shopping by making something a bit special for the occasion. Opening the fridge, I was confronted with a defiant chunk of butternut pumpkin, perched atop the roughage in the vegetable crisper. Looking up, I came eye to eye with the comical packet of gorgonzola The Bloke and I had purchased during a grocery shop some weeks previous. And it was then that I had some sort of pride-driven flash of inspiration... if The Bloke brought a payrise to the table, I could surely contribute by bringing a fancy yet hearty meal!
Admittedly, this recipe is probably best saved "for good." With its multiple steps and protracted cooking time, not to mention the fact that it actually required the use of every saucepan in my kitchen, it's not the sort of thing you'd whip up if you didn't have copious amounts of time on your hands and a deep-seeded sense of uselessness in your soul. But I digress. I combined the two ingredients which inspired me with a stack of other consumables I found lying around the place, and voila! A delicious meal that's sure to impress.
(Hint: read the recipe all the way through before starting - you can cook the tomato sauce at the same time as the veggies and make the crepes too.)
Filling
Olive oil
1 cup butternut pumpkin, cubed
1/2 cup red capsicum, roughly chopped
1 zucchini, roughly chopped
6 mushrooms, roughly chopped
1/2 red onion, roughly chopped
2/3 cup brocolli
1/2 cup frozen peas
Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Gorgonzola Bechemel
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 cup milk
1/2 brown onion
2 bay leaves
40 grams gorgonzola cheese
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Tomato Sauce
Olive oil
1 brown onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cans Italian whole tomatoes, chopped up a bit by banging a knife around the can
1/3 can water
Assortment of fresh herbs, roughly chopped (I used thyme, marjoram and oregano)
1 teaspoon brown sugar
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Crepes
3 eggs
1 cup plain flour
1 cup water
Sea salt
Knob of butter
Topping
3/4 cup grated cheddar
2 tablespoons parmesan, grated
Method
Filling
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.
Put the pumpkin and oil onto an oven-proof tray, and bake for ten minutes. Add the red onion and capsicum, toss with the pumpkin and oil and bake for another five minutes. Add the mushrooms and zucchini and bake until all the veggies are soft.
Remove from the oven and place in a bowl with the brocolli and peas, season and set aside.
Tomato Sauce
Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan over a medium flame, add onion and cook for two minutes, stirring, until it begins to soften.
Add the garlic and cook for a further two minutes, stirring.
Add the tinned tomatoes and water, lower heat and cook, just simmering, for about twenty five minutes, until it is saucy like a Mills & Boon.
Add the brown sugar and herbs and cook for another five minutes, remove from heat and season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
Crepes
Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Whisk the eggs until beaten.
Combine the water with the eggs, then gradually add to the flour and salt, stirring constantly to form a smooth batter.
Melt the butter over a medium-high heat in a 20cm non-stick frypan and add enough batter to just coat the pan (swirl it around to evenly cover the base). When bubbles appear in the mixture, flip and cook the other side for about thirty seconds, until just set.
Remove from heat, place on a plate, and repeat with remainder of mixture to make six crepes, then set aside.
Gorgonzola Bechemel
Heat milk in a small saucepan with the onion and bay leaves until steaming but not bubbling. Melt butter in another saucepan, add flour and cook for a couple of minutes until foamy. Gradually pour the milk through a strainer into the flour and butter mixture, stirring all the time and continue to stir until mixture thickens.
Remove from heat and add gorgonzola , and salt and pepper to taste.
Pour the bechemel over the baked vegetables and stir well to combine.
Assembly
Pre-heat oven to 190 degrees celcius.
Place half of the tomato sauce in the bottom of a medium (20cm x 20cm square) ovenproof dish. Place about three tablespoons of the vegetable / bechemel mix into the middle of each crepe and roll, then place on top of the tomato sauce.
Pour remaining tomato sauce over the top, and sprinkle with grated cheeses.
Bake in the oven for half an hour or until cheese is golden.
Serve with a merlot plus the standard Italian accompaniments of garlic bread and salad, and a liberal helping of snide remarks dropped into conversation about the masterpiece you've created being "nothing, really...".
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