I think that food should be enjoyed by all of your senses. Obviously it has to taste and smell amazing, but it should be more than that. There's the sound of the stove clicking on, and the heat from the food as you taste it, and the image of it all coming together - from a list of ingredients on a piece of paper to a beautiful meal on your table. And there's more than that. There are the feelings of friends all around you, sharing stories and laughter, wine and food, and time together. Not every meal invokes all of these senses, but some do. And those are the ones that you come back to, over and over, to share and enjoy. This is one of those recipes.
I first made this over New Years Eve. I was cooking for a large crowd and needed something spectacular, but "homey." We were out on the cape, in a kitchen that has EVERYTHING you could ever want - including more space than you could even imagine cooking in - and I wanted to make something that would bring everyone together around the table to start a long weekend off right. I came across a recipe by Jamie Oliver for a fantastically beautiful stuffed pasta recipe and knew it was perfect for the night.
There's nothing out-of-the-ordinary about the pasta or the sauce or the combinations in this recipe - it's a very simple vegetable ragú stuffed into long pasta tubes and layered with an easy béchamel sauce and parmesan cheese. The "spectacular" comes into this recipe in the way it touches the senses. The smell of the vegetables cooking down from an easy mirepoix to an incredibly thick and "meaty" sauce, the texture of the quick white sauce mixing with grated parmesan, and - most importantly - the way it looks when it comes together and sits on the table. Instead of laying the pasta tubes on their side and stuffing each one individually with the ragú, Jamie has the brilliant idea to layer the sauces on top of each other and then stack the pasta tubes upright, forming a honeycomb pattern.
I made this pasta again last weekend for a low key dinner at home with family and friends, and just like before, it appealed to all of my senses. It was the perfect way to bring everyone around the table to share in food and conversation. I found myself again, thinking about all that went into the dinner - all of the tastes, smells, sights and sounds of cooking the pasta, but also all of the feelings, stories and laughs that came from it.
Honeycomb Cannelloni (adapted from "Cook with Jamie" by Jamie Oliver)
serves 6-8
sea salt and black pepper
Parmesan cheese, for grating
1lb 2oz cannelloni tubes (or manicotti tubes)
EVOO
for the ragú
small handful of dried porcini or shiitake mushrooms
1/2 c plus 3 tbsps EVOO
3 carrots, peeled and diced
4 sticks of celery, trimmed and finely diced
1 large red onion, peeled and finely diced
1 leek, trimmed and finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
5 Portobello mushrooms, finely chopped
5 x 14 oz cans of good quality plum tomatoes (the good quality is really important)
a large bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks finely chopped
for the spinach
1 1/2 lbs fresh spinach
nutmeg, for grating
for the white sauce
1 c light cream
17 1/2 fl oz créme fraiche
a handful of grated Parmesan cheese
The first thing to do is find yourself a casserole pan or earthenware dish that will snugly hold all of your cannelloni standing upright, as shown in the picture. (I used a Le Cruset-style Martha Stewart Home ceramic dish).
To make your ragú, put your dried mushrooms in a bowl and just cover them with boiling water. Leave to soak for 5 minutes. meanwhile, put a large heavy-based saucepan on a medium heat and add the EVOO, carrots, celery, onion and leek. Cook gently for 8-10 minutes, then add the garlic and Portobello mushrooms. remove the porcini from the bowl, add them to the pan and cook for a further 5 minutes until the vegetables have softened. Strain the porcini liquor through a sieve and add this to the pan with a large wineglass of water. Allow the liquid to reduce slightly, then tip in your tomatoes and add your chopped basil stalks. Season with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. Simmer for up to 45 minutes, until you have a thick, right vegetable ragú. Tear in the basil leaves.
Meanwhile, in a saucepan heath a splash of EVOO and add the spinach, stir, then leave to wilt down. Season with salt, pepper and a grating of nutmeg and put aside. To make your quick white sauce, all you have to do is mix the cream, créme fraiche, and grated Parmesan. Then check the seasoning and that's it!
Preheat the oven to 375°. Now get out the pan you located at the beginning of the recipe and spoon in 1/2 inch of the cheese sauce. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan and top with the spinach. Carefully ladle over half of the vegetable ragú and stand your cannelloni tubes in it. Press the tubes down into the sauce with the palm of your hand - the sauce will come up and half fill the tubes. Spoon over the rest of the ragú, smoothing it down into the holes. Pour over the remaining cheese sauce, sprinkle over some more grated Parmesan, drizzle with EVOO and bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes until gold and bubbly.
Pop open a bottle of Chianti and enjoy!
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