Fresh egg pasta sheets filled with creamy ricotta and spinach in a delicious tomato sauce topped with oozy mozzarella! This spinach and ricotta cannelloni are full of flavor! And the leftovers are amazing, too! This is a classic veggie-baked pasta dish that never fails to satisfy.
This vegetarian cannelloni is made with fresh egg pasta sheets, so there’s no messing about stuffing pasta rolls! I don’t know about you, but I definitely don’t have the time for that!
I’ve been making this dish for ages, even before we went veggie; it’s a firm family favorite. It’s easy to make but does take a little more time. The leftovers are great, and it’s great for freezing, making it a great family meal.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Tomatoes – canned whole plum tomatoes will give you the best flavor for your sauce. You can also use chopped/diced tomatoes or tomato passata.
- Spinach – fresh is best for this recipe, but you can use frozen if you want. I use baby spinach. I find that kids prefer the milder taste of the younger spinach, but if you can get mature spinach, then that works really well, too.
- Cheese – you’ll need ricotta, mozzarella, and pecorino for this recipe. I use full fat for all of them. I don’t recommend using low-fat ricotta for this recipe, but you can substitute it for low-fat if you want.
- Herbs – I use dried oregano and dried bay leaves in the sauce and fresh basil in the filling. You can play around with these if you want. Fresh basil is great in the sauce, as is fresh oregano.
Step By Step Instructions
This is just a quick visual guide; please see the full ingredient list and detailed instructions in the recipe card below.
Make the sauce – cook the onion, celery, and carrots until soft. Add the dried oregano and garlic, cook for a minute, then add two cans of plum tomatoes. Add two dried bay leaves and one tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Leave to simmer until thickened. Remove the bay leaves before using the sauce.
Make the filling – wilt the spinach in a frying pan, leave to cook slightly, then squeeze out as much water as you can. Roughly chop the spinach, then add it to a bowl with the ricotta, grated pecorino, chopped basil, garlic, and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper and stir well.
Assemble the cannelloni – lay a sheet of pasta on a clean board. Add two tablespoons of the filling to one end of the pasta sheet. Roll the pasta to make a tube. Repeat until you’ve used up all the filling.
Bake the cannelloni – add half the sauce to a casserole dish and spread it out with a spoon to cover the base. Place the filled cannelloni on top of the sauce. Cover the cannelloni with the remaining sauce, then scatter some torn mozzarella over the sauce. Bake, uncovered in the oven for about 20 -30 minutes. Leave to cool slightly before serving.
Recipe Tips
- Pasta – I find using fresh pasta sheets the easiest and fastest way to make cannelloni. The other thing about using new lasagna sheets is that you get the best, crispiest edges. I think they taste better than the dried cannelloni rolls, but that’s a taste preference. You can use the dried pasta tubes if you want; the best way to fill those is to use a piping bag.
- Pro-Tip – always have a couple of extra sheets of lasagna; sometimes sheets crack or break, and it can happen. If you have leftover lasagna sheets, they will keep in the fridge for a couple of days. You could always use up any leftovers in a lasagne.
- Sauce – When the sauce is cooked, I blend it with a handheld blender; this will make the spice nice and smooth. You can skip this if you want. I find that the softer the sauce, the less chance of the kids finding out that there are carrots in there!
Variations
- Try a spinach and ricotta pasta bake. Don’t feel like filling those tubes? Make a pasta bake instead! You’ll get all the same great flavor just in a pasta bake!
- Make stuffed shells instead, another family favorite and a very popular recipe on the blog. This is a little bit less work, but it still tastes great.
Ingredients
- One medium brown onion, finely chopped
- One tablespoon of olive oil
- One medium carrot peeled and finely chopped
- One stalk of celery finely chopped
- Two cloves of garlic put through a garlic press or finely chopped
- 1 level tsp dried oregano
- 2 x 400g (2 x 14oz ) cans of whole plum tomatoes
- One tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
- Two dried bay leaves
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
for the cannelloni
- Seven sheets of fresh egg lasagna sheets + a couple more in case any break
- 250 g (approx 8 cups) of young spinach
- 250 g ( 1 cup ) ricotta
- 45 g ( 1/2 a cup ) pecorino cheese finely grated + more for serving
- Two cloves of garlic
- small bunch of basil roughly shredded
- 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 125 g x ball ( 1 x 8 oz ball US) of fresh mozzarella
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Instructions
- Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saute pan. Add the chopped onion and cook for about 10 minutes. Then, add the chopped celery and chopped carrot. Cook for another 10 minutes or until they are softened. Add the garlic and one teaspoon of dried oregano and cook for a minute until the garlic releases its aroma.
- Now add two cans of whole plum tomatoes, break them down with a wooden spoon, and stir well. I always add a little water to the cans to catch any remaining tomato juice. Stir in 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, season with salt and pepper, and two dried bay leaves. Leave the sauce to simmer until it is nice and thick, then using a handheld blender, blend the sauce until it is smooth.