Fallen Souffle

This recipe was discovered when I was going through all of my cooking magazines and saving the recipes I would actually use. I pulled out my new accordion file of recipes on Sunday and picked out a few to try this week. This one caught my eye because it looked familiar to our favorite baked pasta dish.

This was an easy dish to whip up, probably took 30 minutes total with Evan helping me make the filling and chopping the ham while I made the bechamel. (Which by the way I am becoming a pro at!). The flavors were very similar to the baked pasta but it didn’t have the crunch that we like. Nonetheless, this will certainly be a repeater. I think I may try some other filling too, maybe some chicken and broccoli. BTW- Make this vegetarian by adding spinach instead of meat.

This was originally a Rachael Ray recipe but I made a few changes, namely took out the 2 cups of cream- hello! no need for all that fat when the point of the flour in the bechamel is to thicken things. I also added the nutmeg, which I am shocked she left out seeing as her Grandpa practically invented the use of it!

Try this out on a busy weekday, it will be nice to sit down to a warm creamy dish like this.

Ham and Cheese Cannelloni
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk (I used skim and it worked fine)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
pinch of fresh nutmeg
1 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 large egg
8 egg-roll wrappers (available in the refrigerated section)
1 large ham steak, chopped into small cubes
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 400°. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the flour until smooth. Slowly whisk in the milk and cook, stirring continuously, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Set the cream sauce aside; then stir in the salt.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the ricotta, chopped ham, and mozzarella and the egg.

3. Spread a thin layer of the cream sauce in the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Arrange an egg-roll wrapper on a work surface. Spread 3 tablespoons of the ricotta mixture over the wrapper then roll up to form a log, jelly-roll style. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and place the cannelloni, seam side down, in a single layer in the baking dish.

4. Spoon the remaining cream sauce over the cannelloni, top with the Parmigiano-Reggiano and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown and bubbly.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 15th, 2007 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Italian. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.