Vegetarian cannelloni with a blue cheese pasta sauce

A classic dish with a couple of twists – it’s a vegetarian Cannelloni di Manzo – and it has a blue cheese pasta sauce, a besciamella (bechamel) sauce enhanced with some blue cheese.

The vegetarian cannelloni filling

Some lentil, stout, and mushroom mixture leftover from another recipe (Lentil turnovers and gravy) found a new purpose as a delicious filling for this vegetarian cannelloni. Cannelloni is one of my favourite Italian pasta dishes (along with Gnocchi al Forno and Radiatori pasta). The lentil, stout, and mushroom mixture replaces the beef normally used in a di Manzo style cannelloni. Like with the lentil turnovers, no one missed the meat. This vegetarian cannelloni was truly delectable.

The ingredients in this recipe specify large lasagna noodles as opposed to pasta tubes. This site clarifies the correct naming. The pasta tube version is called manicotti. Once cooked, there won’t be a lot of difference.

The blue cheese pasta sauce

Not content with just swapping out the filling, I also “enhanced” the bechamel sauce with some blue cheese. To be consistent with the Italian origins of this dish, find good quality gorgonzola. Otherwise, use your favourite blue cheese. If you do not have a favourite, I highly recommend Roquefort.

Before making this dish, I seldom used canned tomatoes, thinking fresh is always better. After reading an article about the advantages of cooking with canned tomatoes, I started using good quality canned tomatoes in sauces rather than reducing down fresh tomatoes. The article was right.

Vegetarian cannelloni with a blue cheese pasta sauce

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian, Mediterranean Inspired

Keyword: blue cheese, lentils, mushrooms, pasta

Servings: 4

Author: Steve Paris

A classic dish with a couple of twists – it's a vegetarian Cannelloni di Manzo – and it has a blue cheese pasta sauce, a besciamella (bechamel) sauce enhanced with some blue cheese.

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Ingredients

Lentil, stout, and mushroom cannelloni

• 10 large lasagna sheets
• 2 small onions
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 cloves garlic
• 3 cloves black garlic or 3 more cloves of raw garlic
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 150 g crimini or portobello mushrooms finely diced
• 1 cup brown lentils dried
• 3 cups water
• 1 bottle stout 350 ml, Guiness will work too.
• 3 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tsp cornflour

Tomato sauce

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 small carrot
• 1 stalk celery
• 3 stems parsley
• 400 ml can tomatoes
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1/4 cup chopped basil leaves

Blue besciamella sauce

• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
• 2 cups milk
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese Dolcelatte or Gorgonzola if sticking with Italian, otherwise Roquefort works great

Topping and extra

• 1 cup grated gruyere cheese
• green leaf salad
• delectabilia salad dressing

Instructions

Lentil, stout, and mushroom cannelloni

• Soak the lasagna sheets in water for at least 30 minutes or until needed.
• Rinse the lentils and remove any stones or other debris.
• Add to a saucepan with the 3 cups of water, one of the onions (halved), 4 cloves garlic (crushed with the side of a knife but still in one piece), and the bay leaves.
• Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes, or until the lentils are edible but still quite firm. They will cook some more in the next step.
• Strain the lentils, removing the onions, garlic, and bay leaves.
• Finely dice the other onion and remaining garlic cloves if using raw garlic as opposed to black garlic.
• Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and sauté the onions and garlic until soft.
• Add the finely diced mushrooms and sauté until softening.
• Add the lentils, stout, tomato paste, diced black garlic (if using), salt and pepper, bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer.
• Simmer for 40 minutes. The liquid should reduce and thicken a bit.
• Combine cornflour with a Tbsp of water and add to the saucepan, stirring to combine well, cooking for 10 more minutes.
• Allow to cool. The mixture should further thicken as it cools.

Tomato sauce

• Skin and dice the onion and garlic and sauté in the olive oil.
• Wash, trim, and dice the carrot, celery and parsley.
• Once the onion is soft and becoming translucent, add the carrot, celery, and parsley.
• Sauté until vegetables are starting to brown.
• Add the tomatoes, reserving the liquid.
• Stir in the basil, red wine, and 1/4 cup of the reserved liquid.
• Simmer for 30-40 minutes.
• Use an immersion blender to make the sauce smooth. Add some more of the reserved liquid if it is too thick (depends on the tomatoes).
• Set aside.

Blue besciamella sauce

• In a saucepan melt the butter over a medium-low heat.
• When melted, stir in the flour. Cook until the mixture starts to brown a little.
• Slowly add the milk, whisking all the time.
• Return to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes.
• Add the nutmeg, salt, and parmesan and blue cheeses.
• Set aside.

Assembly

• Pre-heat the oven to 200 degC.
• Spread the tomato sauce on the base of a baking dish. Should be about 1 cm thick.
• Roll a large spoonful of lentil mixture into a lasagna sheet a place onto the tomato sauce in the baking dish.
• Repeat until you run out of space or ingredients.
• Spoon the blue besciamella sauce over the cannelloni – about half to one cm thick.
• Sprinkle on the grated gruyere cheese.
• Bake in the oven for 50 minutes. Grill it a bit longer if you need to brown the top a bit more.
• Serve with a green salad and delectabilia salad dressing.

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