Beef n’ chicken cannelloni recipe

Often referred to as ‘cannelloni al forno’ (cannelloni in the oven in Italian), this dish in fact packs 3 meats inside its tubes – not only minced chicken and minced beef, but tasty chopped mortadella ham too.

Fry up this succulent mix with a little tomato, smother the lot in milky béchamel, and you have a large warming plate of baked Italian fare that every meat-eater will love.

Serves 2

Ingredients: (For a printable PDF shopping list click here, or right-click this link and choose 'Save target/link as' to save the list for later.)

1 litre/2 pints of medium-fat milk

100g/3.5oz minced/ground chicken

100g/3.5oz minced/ground beef

60g/2oz plain flour

50g/1.75oz mortadella ham

40g/1.5oz grated parmesan cheese

100g/3.5oz cubed butter

2 plum tomatoes (from can)

100g/3.5oz packet cannelloni tubes

Salt

Equipment

Large frying pan

Sauce pan

Small baking dish (larger if serving 4 or more)

Mixing bowl

Sieve

STEP 1 - The first step of this chicken cannelloni? Making the béchamel sauce.

- Pour milk into sauce pan and sieve in flour, stirring constantly until flour dissolves.

- Warm milk over medium heat hob.

- When warm, add butter and stir gently. Keep stirring in same circular motion until butter melts (stage 1) and mixture turns into a thick, gloopy sauce. Allow 20-25 mins for this sauce-stirring – yes it’s the boring part, but it’s crucial!

- When sauce drips off the spoon, it’s done, so take off heat.

STEP 2 - Now for that mightily meaty mixture.

- Mix the minced beef, chicken, finely chopped mortadella and grated parmesan in a bowl. Also add a good pinch of salt.

- Melt butter in frying pan. Then add plum tomatoes and cook for 2-3 mins until soft.

- Break up toms with spoon and add 3-meat mixture.

- Fry on medium heat hob for approx. 5 mins, until meat is no longer raw (i.e. ‘seared’ all over). Also throw in a pinch of black pepper if you like.

- Finally, add a quarter or so of the béchamel sauce to create a thick meaty filling.

STEP 3 - Take the pan off the heat and cool for 5 mins.

- While it is cooling, spread a little béchamel over the base of your baking dish.

- Now use a teaspoon to fill cannelloni tubes with meat mixture (the wrong end of the spoon is perfect for pushing the mixture down inside).

- Lay each packed tube in the bottom of the baking dish.

- Repeat until base of dish is covered with tubes.

STEP 4 - When dish is packed, pour over all the remaining béchamel, making sure no pasta tubes are peeking through the surface.

- Cook in 180C/350-degree Fahrenheit oven for 25-30 mins, or until surface turns golden.

Done!

To serve: serve on its own, or I sometimes like to add some fresh tomato alongside.

Can’t get enough of pasta tube dishes? Try these other cannelloni recipes.