Three Cheese Cannelloni

You know the expression, "everything is going pear shaped"? No? well this Australian expression means "things are not going as expected"

So I had an arthroscopy on my knee in April and I expected it to be a breeze and I would be back walking in a couple of weeks!  Needless to say that didn't happen.

Now, after 15 weeks of pain, swelling, feelings of utter desperation, physiotherapy visits and lots of strapping, I may be reaching a turning point! Albeit, fingers crossed, rabbit foot lucky charms and black cats  - it will be fine in 5 weeks when I leave to go to the UK to walk The Thames Pathway . That's a lot of kilometres to walk while carrying a back pack.

Intense gym sessions and extended walks over the next few weeks have to be high on my list or I will never make the distance.

In celebration of seeing 'the light at the end of the tunnel', I am cooking one of my favourite fast pasta dishes. Three Cheese Cannelloni! It has nothing to do with pears either, but it got you interested.

I first made this dish about 15 years ago and I have served this to most of the people I know and everyone agrees it is pretty darn good.

Three Cheese Cannelloni

Ingredients

Dried or fresh Cannelloni (approximately 15 tubes)
350 fresh ricotta cheese (the package supermarket wont do)
2 eggs
100g grated parmesan cheese
handful of Italian parsley, finely chopped
200g Mozzarella grated
few chives finely chopped
salt and pepper

For the sauce

jar of Passata or large tin of diced tomatoes

1 onion finely chopped
3 tomatoes, roughly chopped

fresh basil chopped

handful of Italian parsley, finely chopped

2 tbls tomato paste

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbls olive oil
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper

• Start the sauce first. In a large fry pan heat oil and sauté onion and garlic until soft but not coloured.
• Add tomatoes and cook for a few minutes. Lower the heat and add passata or tinned tomatoes, chopped parsley, basil,bay leaf, salt and pepper to taste. 
• Continue to cook for 10 minutes then add tomato paste. Continue to cook for a further 20 - 30 minutes until the tomatoes are nicely broken down and the sauce is thick. 
• Check seasonings and adjust if necessary.

• While the sauce is cooking, mix up the cheese stuffing. In a large bowl add parmesan, ricotta, eggs, parsley, chives, salt and pepper and mix together gently.

• Spoon the egg and cheese mixture into a large piping bag and pipe the mixture into the cannelloni shells and place in a single layer in an oven proof dish.

• When the sauce is ready, remove the bay leaf and pour the sauce over the cannelloni. Sprinkle the top with mozzarella cheese. bake in a pre heated oven 180º/350 for 30 minutes until the top is nicely browned.

• Serve with a green salad and crusty bread.

Note: You can change the type of cheese in the cannelloni to suit your taste. Also you can add chopped wilted spinach to the cheese, which is really yummy.

Cheese Biscuits

Whenever we have friends over for dinner, I usually whip up a dip or two to have with pre dinner drinks. But just lately I have noticed that everyone else is doing the same.  Time to try something different I thought and I have been racking my brain to find an alternative.

I remember a few years back, before bringing out dips was the fashion, we always had something cheesy with a glass of champagne or a cocktail.  Eating cheese before a meal can totally destroy your appetite and your waistline. But a small savoury cheesy snack will heighten your taste buds ready for the main meal.

While I was scanning through cookbooks the other day I came across these beautiful cheesy biscuits in The Really Useful Cookbook by David Herbert . Delicately thin, decidedly good and very, very easy to make. Most of all, they are simply delicious. 

The book contains some fabulous recipes and I use it fairly often, see if you can get your hands on a copy.

Try these with your friends and see their reaction. If the plate is empty before you can say cheese, then you know they have loved them too. This recipe makes quite a lot of biscuits, so you can squirrel away a few for yourself to eat later.

Cheddar Biscuits

Ingredients

200g plain flour sifted

50g parmesan cheese, grated

150, tasty cheddar cheese

salt and pepper

175g butter, chilled and diced

1 tbls lemon juice

1 tbls chopped chives

Place flour, salt, butter, cheeses, lemon juice, chives, salt and pepper into a food processor and process until the mixture comes together in a ball.

Take a large sheet of baking paper and mould the mixture into a sausage shape approximately 30 cms long with a 5 cm diameter.

Using the paper to assist, roll the mixture up into a long sausage, twist the ends of the paper to and place in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180º fan forced/350. Prepare a baking tray with baking paper.

Take the biscuit mixture and unwrap. With a sharp knife, slice the biscuits very thinly and place on the prepared baking tray. Bake for around 8 - 10 minutes until the biscuits are golden around the edges.

Leave on the tray to cool for a few minutes the transfer to a wire rack and leave until cold before storing in an air tight container.

This recipe made approximately 60 biscuits (I think a few more but as they were cooling I noticed a few disappearing)