Butternut and Pork Cannelloni

Italian Classic

Serves: 6-8

Preparation time: 45 Minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour, 10 Minutes

Oven temperature: 200°C

Ingredients:

• 750g (3 packets) Cannelloni tubes
• Butter

Ingredients (Filling):

• 1.5kg Butternut, cubed
• 2 Onions, cut into wedges
• 3 Cloves garlic
• 4 Sprigs thyme
• Nutmeg
• 45ml Olive oil
• 280g Ricotta cheese
• 125ml Milk
• 8 fresh Pork and sage bangers

Ingredients (Tomato sauce):

• 700ml (1 bottle) Tomato passata
• fresh Basil and parsley
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Ingredients (White sauce):

• 500ml Sour cream
• 2 Handfuls of grated Parmesan cheese
• 250ml Milk
• about 250g Mozzarella, grated

Ingredients (Sage butter):

• 100ml Butter
• 6 Sage leaves
• 60ml Pine nuts (optional)

Method:

1. Make the filling: Preheat the oven.
2. Arrange the butternut, onion, garlic and thyme in an ovenproof dish, then season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, and drizzle with olive oil.
3. Roast until golden brown and tender (about 25 minutes).
4. Remove the butternut from the oven, mix in the ricotta and milk and blend to form a smooth purée.
5. Remove the skin of the sausages, break up the meat and fry until crispy.
6. Mix with the butternut purée.
7. Make sure the meat is fine enough to pass through the nozzle of a piping bag. If it's a disposable bag, cut the corner slightly bigger.
8. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C.
9. Spoon the tomato passata onto the bottom of your ovenproof dish.
10. Season with the fresh herbs, salt and pepper.
11. Stand the cannelloni tubes upright in the sauce (three packets of cannelloni fitted perfectly in our 31cm diameter dish).
12. Spoon the filling into a piping bag and pipe it into the tubes.
13. Whisk together the sour cream and Parmesan cheese for the white sauce and dilute it with the milk.
14. Spoon the sauce over the dish.
15. Sprinkle the mozzarella over, cover and bake for about 30 minutes.
16. Remove the lid and bake for a further 10 minutes or until done.
17. Melt the butter and sauté the sage leaves and pine nuts until they start to brown.
18. Drizzle immediately over the cooked cannelloni.

Credit:

Home Magazine: http://homemag.co.za/category/recipes/
Pg.122, July 2017