Gordon Ramsay spinach and ricotta cannelloni fills fresh lasagne sheets with spinach, mushrooms and ricotta, then bakes them under a cheese sauce. It serves six and takes about an hour, most of which can be done in advance.
The recipe is from Cooking for Friends. Ramsay points across to his own grilled vegetable lasagne and says this is another dish that isn’t only for vegetarians.
Crème fraîche goes into the cheese sauce, but only once it has cooled. Stir it into a hot sauce and it splits.
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Gordon Ramsay Spinach, Mushroom and Ricotta Cannelloni
Course: MainCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Medium6
servings40
minutes20
minutes660
kcal1 hr
From Cooking for Friends. Fresh lasagne sheets rolled around wilted spinach, sautéed mushrooms and ricotta, baked hot and fast under a mustard cheese sauce enriched with crème fraîche.
Ingredients
- For the pasta:
284g fresh lasagne sheets, about 12 (10 oz)
2 to 3 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan
- For the cheese sauce:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tsp English mustard
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1¼ cups milk
½ cup grated Cheddar
2 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan
1 cup crème fraîche or double cream
- For the filling:
1 tbsp butter
397g spinach leaves, washed (14 oz)
Nutmeg, for grating
2 to 3 tbsp olive oil
454g chestnut mushrooms, sliced (1 lb)
2 cups ricotta
2 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan
Sea salt and ground black pepper
Directions
- Start the sauce: Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour, mustard and cayenne. Stir over a low heat for 2 to 3 minutes, then slowly whisk in the milk until smooth. Simmer, stirring, for 5 minutes to cook out the flour.
- Finish the sauce: Off the heat, stir in the Cheddar and Parmesan until melted and smooth. Tip into a bowl and leave to cool completely. Only once it is cold, stir in the crème fraîche. Taste and season.
- Wilt the spinach: Melt the butter in a pan, add the spinach with seasoning and a light grating of nutmeg. Cook over a high heat until wilted, then tip into a colander set over a bowl and leave to cool.
- Cook the mushrooms: Return the pan to the heat with the olive oil, the mushrooms and some seasoning. Sauté for 3 to 4 minutes, until tender and the juices have evaporated. Tip into a large bowl and cool.
- Mix the filling: Give the spinach a light squeeze to remove excess moisture and add it to the mushrooms. Stir in the ricotta and Parmesan, then taste and season.
- Roll the cannelloni: Lay a lasagne sheet on a board. Spoon 2 tbsp of filling along one end, leaving a little space at each side, and roll it up. Sit it on a tray joined-side down. Repeat with the rest.
- Assemble: Heat the oven to 220°C (425°F). Spread half the cheese sauce over the base of a large baking dish and lay the cannelloni on top in a single layer. Spread the rest of the sauce over them and scatter with Parmesan.
- Bake: Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Take it straight to the table.
Notes
- Ramsay says the whole thing can be assembled ahead and put in the oven about 20 minutes before you want to eat. Calories are worked out from the ingredients.
FAQs
Why cool the cheese sauce before adding the crème fraîche?
Crème fraîche splits if it goes into a hot sauce. The base gets made first, taken off the heat and cooled completely, and only then does the crème fraîche get stirred through.
Ramsay uses the same trick in the chicken lasagne, where crème fraîche stands in for double cream. It brings acidity that cream does not, which is what stops a cheese sauce tasting flat.
Why English mustard and cayenne in a cheese sauce?
Both go in with the flour at the roux stage, before any liquid. A teaspoon of English mustard and a pinch of cayenne, so neither is meant to be tasted on its own.
Their job is to stop the Cheddar tasting dull. The tuna pasta bake uses exactly the same pairing in its béchamel, which suggests it is his default for anything cheesy and baked.
Why only lightly squeeze the spinach?
The spinach drains in a colander as it cools, then gets a light squeeze rather than being wrung out. Too much water makes the filling loose and the cannelloni collapse.
Too little water is a problem too. Squeeze it bone dry and the filling turns pasty, because the ricotta has nothing left to loosen it.
Why cook the mushrooms until the juices evaporate?
Three to four minutes over a decent heat, until the mushrooms are tender and the liquid they release has cooked off. Mushrooms are mostly water and all of it comes out in the pan.
Leave that liquid in and it ends up inside the pasta tube, turning the filling watery and the sheet soggy. Everything then gets cooled before the ricotta goes in.
Can you make cannelloni ahead?
Yes, and the book says so directly. Assemble the whole dish, sauce and all, then bake it about 20 minutes before you plan to eat.
The sauce is already cold when it goes on, so nothing is lost by the wait. Keep it covered in the fridge and give it the full 20 minutes from cold.
Do you need to boil the lasagne sheets first?
No. Fresh lasagne sheets are pliable enough to roll straight from the packet and they cook through in the oven under the sauce.
Dried sheets are another matter and would need soaking or boiling first. Fresh is what the recipe calls for, about 12 sheets to 284g.
How is this different from his lasagne?
Same idea, different assembly. The vegetable lasagne layers everything flat in a dish, while this rolls each portion into a tube.
That page gets asked whether spinach can go in, and this recipe is the answer. Ramsay names it himself in the cannelloni headnote, calling both dishes ones that are not only for vegetarians.
