Italian Spelt Cannelloni Filled with Artichokes and Porcini Mushrooms with Parmigiano Béchamel | Cannelloni di Farro Ripieni di Carciofi e Funghi Porcini con Besciamella al Parmigiano
Cannelloni are usually leftovers dressed up for Sunday, which is what makes them worth rebuilding properly. Here the sheets are rolled from spelt, the old grain the Romans called farro, which gives the pasta a faintly nutty flavour and a matte surface that grips sauce as white flour never does. The filling is artichoke and porcini, kept in visible pieces rather than blitzed to a paste, under a Parmigiano bechamel light enough to moisten the pasta without smothering it.
The balance sits on one tension. Artichokes carry a clean vegetal bitterness, porcini carry earth and a heavy dose of glutamate, and a dairy sauce can turn both into a beige casserole where nothing is identifiable. The method below stops that: the artichokes cook separately and stay firm, the porcini are seared hard, and the bechamel is looser than a lasagne sauce so the spelt absorbs some of it while baking.
Yield: 4 servings, 12 cannelloni. Prep: 1 hour 10 minutes. Cook: 45 minutes. Rest: 10 minutes. Total: about 2 hours 5 minutes. Difficulty: intermediate to advanced. Course: primo piatto. Season: late autumn into early spring, when artichokes and porcini overlap.
The Story
Farro is the oldest wheat still farmed in Italy. Triticum dicoccum reached the peninsula thousands of years ago and was the staple grain of the Roman republic: puls, the thick farro porridge, fed legions long before bread wheat took over, and confarreatio, the most solemn Roman marriage rite, was named for the spelt cake the couple shared. By the mid twentieth century it had almost vanished, kept alive only in Garfagnana and in pockets of Umbria, Abruzzo and Lazio where the soils were too poor for anything more demanding.
Cannelloni are much younger. Rolled tubes of fresh pasta baked under sauce appear in Emilian and Neapolitan kitchens in the early twentieth century, and the spinach and ricotta version most Italians grew up with spread through restaurant menus in the nineteen fifties. They are a dish of assembly rather than invention, which is why they take a filling willingly.
The artichoke and porcini pairing belongs to central Italy, where the two seasons meet at the edges: artichokes from Lazio and Sardinia, porcini from the chestnut and oak woods of Tuscany and Umbria. It is not a recipe with a village of origin but the logic of a regional pantry, and spelt sheets return the tray to the grain that grew on those same hills.
Ingredients
For the spelt pasta
Finely milled spelt flour, farro, 1 1/2 cups (200 g)
Italian 00 flour, 3/4 cup (100 g)
Large eggs, 3
Extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp (15 ml)
Fine sea salt, 1/2 tsp (3 g)
For the artichoke and porcini filling
Globe artichokes, medium, 6
Lemon, halved, 1
Fresh porcini mushrooms, cleaned, 10 oz (285 g)
Dried porcini mushrooms, 1/3 oz (10 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 3 tbsp (45 ml)
Garlic cloves, lightly crushed, 2
Shallot, finely chopped, 1
Dry white wine, 1/4 cup (60 ml)
Fresh thyme leaves, 1 tsp (1 g)
Flat leaf parsley, chopped, 2 tbsp (6 g)
Sheep milk ricotta, well drained, 1 cup (250 g)
Grated Parmigiano Reggiano, 1/2 cup (50 g)
Large egg yolk, 1
Freshly grated nutmeg, 1 pinch
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the Parmigiano bechamel
Whole milk, 2 1/2 cups (600 ml)
Unsalted butter, 4 tbsp (55 g)
Italian 00 flour, 1/3 cup (45 g)
Grated Parmigiano Reggiano, 3/4 cup (75 g)
Bay leaf, 1
Freshly grated nutmeg, 1 pinch
Fine sea salt, 3/4 tsp (4 g)
For finishing
Grated Parmigiano Reggiano, 1/4 cup (25 g)
Unsalted butter, 1 tbsp (15 g)
Reserved seared porcini slices, 8
Small flat leaf parsley leaves, 12
Extra virgin olive oil, a few drops per plate
Preparation
Mixing and resting the spelt dough
Mound the two flours on a board, make a well and add the eggs, the oil and the salt. Draw the flour in with a fork until a shaggy mass forms, then knead for a full 10 minutes. Spelt gluten is weak and fragile, which is why the 00 flour is there. The dough should finish smooth but noticeably less elastic than an all egg pasta. Wrap it and rest it at room temperature for 45 minutes so the bran hydrates and stops tearing the sheets.
Turning and cooking the artichokes
Fill a bowl with cold water and squeeze in the lemon. Snap off the tough outer leaves until you reach the pale tender ones, cut off the top third, peel the stem and base and halve each artichoke. Scrape out the choke and drop the halves into the lemon water at once. Slice them 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick and cook them covered with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, a crushed garlic clove, the wine and a splash of water for 10 to 12 minutes, until yielding but still firm enough to hold their shape. Drain and discard the garlic.
Rehydrating and searing the porcini
Soak the dried porcini in 1/2 cup (120 ml) of warm water for 20 minutes, lift them out, chop them and strain the liquid through a paper filter. Slice the fresh porcini 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick. Heat the remaining oil until it shimmers, lay the slices in a single layer and leave them for 2 minutes before stirring: they must sear, not stew. Add the shallot, the second garlic clove, the rehydrated porcini and the thyme, cook 3 minutes more, then add the strained liquid and let it evaporate almost completely. Reserve 8 good slices.
Building and seasoning the filling
Chop the cooked artichokes and the seared porcini coarsely, leaving pieces you can recognise with a fork, and cool them. Fold in the drained ricotta, the Parmigiano, the egg yolk, the parsley, the nutmeg, salt and pepper. Season more assertively than feels right: the bechamel and the pasta are both mild, and a filling seasoned to taste alone reads as flat once baked inside a tube. If it looks wet, spread it on a tray for 10 minutes; a loose filling leaks and turns the tray watery.
Rolling and blanching the sheets
Roll the rested dough down to the second last setting, around 1/25 inch (1 mm), working in short lengths and keeping the sheets lightly floured. Cut twelve rectangles of roughly 4 by 5 inches (10 by 13 cm). Salt a wide pan of boiling water at about 1 tablespoon (15 g) per 4 quarts (4 litres), lighter than normal pasta water because the sheets meet a salted bechamel and salted cheese. Blanch them two at a time for 40 seconds, until just pliable, lift them into cold water and lay them flat on damp cloths.
Cooking the Parmigiano bechamel
Warm the milk with the bay leaf and take it off the heat. Melt the butter, whisk in the flour and cook the roux over medium low heat for 3 minutes, stirring constantly: it should smell of toasted biscuit and lose all raw flour taste without colouring. Add the warm milk in three additions, whisking hard after each, then simmer 8 minutes, stirring the base so nothing catches. Off the heat, remove the bay leaf and stir in the Parmigiano, the nutmeg and the salt. It should coat a spoon but still fall from it easily.
Filling, rolling and assembling
Spread a thin layer of bechamel over the base of a dish about 8 by 12 inches (20 by 30 cm). Pat each sheet dry, pipe a finger thick line of filling along the short edge and roll it once, not twice, so the pasta stays a single wrap and the filling remains the centre of the mouthful. Set the tubes seam side down, touching but not squeezed, spoon the rest of the bechamel over so they are covered but not submerged, scatter the finishing Parmigiano and dot with butter.
Baking and resting the tray
Bake at 375°F (190°C) for 25 minutes, then move the dish to the upper third for 5 to 8 minutes more until the surface is blistered and golden in patches rather than uniformly brown. You want colour on the ridges and a sauce still creamy underneath. Rest the dish 10 minutes before cutting: straight from the oven the bechamel is fluid and the tubes collapse when lifted, while after ten minutes the starch has set enough to hold their shape.
Plating
Serve three cannelloni per person on a warmed plate, around 140°F (60°C), never a hot one: the bechamel thins on an overheated plate and runs to the rim, while a cold plate dulls the Parmigiano within a minute. Lift each tube with a wide offset spatula, a spoon underneath, so the seam stays down.
Set the three side by side and slightly angled rather than in a rigid row, and spoon a little of the bechamel that pooled in the dish over the joins. Lay two reserved porcini slices across the tubes, add a few small parsley leaves and finish with a few drops of good olive oil and a turn of black pepper. A bare rim and three clean tubes read as restaurant work far better than a garnish does.
Professional Technique
The defining technical problem here is spelt gluten. Farro has plenty of protein, but its glutenin fraction is weak and its bran abrasive, so the dough builds a network and cuts it apart again as you roll. Three decisions answer that: the 00 flour supplies the elastic backbone spelt cannot, the 45 minute rest lets the bran hydrate, and the sheets stop at 1 mm rather than the 0.6 mm semolina would take.
The second is moisture partitioning between three wet components. Artichokes cooked in wine, porcini releasing their own liquid and ricotta weeping whey would together flood the tube, so each is dried before it meets the others: artichokes drained, porcini liquid reduced to nothing, ricotta drained in advance, filling spread on a tray for ten minutes. What remains firms with the egg yolk instead of leaking into the sauce.
The third is the deliberately loose bechamel. A standard lasagne sauce sets hard; this one is thinner on purpose, because blanched spelt sheets are thirsty and pull liquid out of the sauce during the 30 minutes in the oven. Judge it as under thickened in the pan and it will be correct when you cut into the tray.
Texture and Moisture Control
The blanch is where the pasta texture is decided. Forty seconds in lightly salted water takes the sheet from brittle to pliable and no further, leaving starch that gelatinises in the oven and holds the tube together. Push it to 90 seconds and the sheet loses structure, absorbs bechamel like a sponge and turns to mush under the fork. The plunge into cold water stops the cooking dead and rinses off starch that would glue the sheets together.
Inside the tube, texture depends on keeping the two vegetables distinct. The artichokes are cooked only to the point of yielding and keep a faint fibrous resistance, the porcini are seared so the flesh stays meaty, and both are chopped by hand rather than in a processor.
On the tray, moisture moves one way: out of the bechamel and into the pasta, which is why the tubes are covered but not drowned. Sauce deeper than the tubes stops the top colouring; sauce too shallow leaves the ends leathery. Aim for a covering that leaves the ends just showing.
Professional Mise en Place
This dish separates cleanly into work done in advance and work done at service. The only last minute operations are the bake and the plating, which is why cannelloni suit a table of guests so well.
Equipment and tools
Pasta machine or a long rolling pin, and a large board
Wide shallow pan for blanching and a bowl of iced water
Heavy saucepan and a balloon whisk for the bechamel
Large sauté pan that holds the porcini in one layer
Piping bag with a 1/2 inch (12 mm) nozzle, wide offset spatula
Baking dish about 8 by 12 inches (20 by 30 cm)
Prepared ahead
Spelt dough made and rested, up to 24 hours ahead, wrapped and cold
Artichokes turned and cooked, up to 1 day ahead, kept covered and cold
Porcini seared and cooled the same day, garnish slices set apart
Filling assembled and chilled, up to 1 day ahead
Sheets rolled, blanched and layered between damp cloths, up to 4 hours ahead
Service setup
Bechamel warm, film touching the surface so no skin forms
Tray assembled cold, at room temperature 20 minutes before baking
Oven at 375°F (190°C), racks in the middle and the upper third
Plates warmed to 140°F (60°C), garnishes and olive oil lined up
Wide spatula and a spoon within reach for lifting the tubes
Chef Tips
Buy your spelt flour finely milled and check the date. Wholegrain farro flour contains germ oil that goes rancid faster than white flour, and a bag that has sat in a warm shop gives the pasta a stale bitterness you will blame on the artichokes.
Drain the ricotta overnight even if it looks dry. Sheep milk ricotta holds far more whey than it appears to, and a tablespoon released inside a sealed tube is enough to make the bottom of the tray soupy. A sieve over a bowl in the refrigerator is all it takes.
If fresh porcini are out of season, use 2 oz (55 g) of dried porcini rehydrated plus 10 oz (285 g) of cremini seared hard. Do not simply double the dried mushrooms: the flavour concentrates but the texture goes soft and stringy, and the meaty bite that carries the filling is lost.
Taste the bechamel after the Parmigiano goes in and before you salt further. A well aged Parmigiano carries a great deal of salt and the sauce concentrates in the oven, so it should taste slightly under seasoned in the pan.
Common Mistakes
Rolling the spelt sheets too thin. Spelt has weak gluten and abrasive bran, and a sheet taken to the last setting will tear as you roll it and split along the seam in the oven. Stop at the second last setting, about 1 mm.
Stewing the porcini instead of searing them. Crowding the pan or stirring too early drops the temperature, the mushrooms boil in their own water, and the filling ends up grey and slippery with no roasted flavour.
Making the bechamel as thick as for lasagne. The sheets draw liquid out of the sauce for the whole 30 minutes in the oven, so a bechamel that is correct in the pan will be a stiff paste on the plate. It must look distinctly loose when you spoon it over.
Cutting the tray straight out of the oven. The sauce is still fluid and the tubes break apart on the spatula. Ten minutes of rest lets the starch set, and it is the difference between three clean cannelloni and a heap.
Wine Pairing
Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Riserva DOCG: The most intelligent choice on the list, because of the artichokes. Cynarin makes most wines taste oddly sweet and metallic, but Verdicchio finishes on a genuine bitter almond note that meets the artichoke on its own terms. The Riserva has the weight and light waxy texture to carry a dairy sauce, and its acidity stops the Parmigiano coating the palate.
Fiano di Avellino DOCG: Fiano is the wine for the porcini. Even young it shows hazelnut, beeswax and a smoky mineral note that runs alongside the earthy glutamate of the mushrooms rather than competing with it, with body enough to sit under the bechamel and acidity to lift it. Two or three years of age add a savoury depth.
Etna Bianco DOC: Carricante grown on volcanic ash gives a saline, almost flinty white with very high acidity and a lean frame. That leanness is the point: it cuts through the butter and cheese without adding fruit sweetness that would clash with the artichoke bitterness. Serve it at 50°F (10°C) and it resets the palate between forkfuls.
Etna Rosso DOC: If the table wants red, this is the one that works. Nerello Mascalese is pale, high in acid and low in aggressive tannin, closer to Nebbiolo than to anything southern, and its dried herb and red cherry character sits naturally with porcini. Heavy tannic reds turn metallic against artichokes; this does not. Pour it at 59°F (15°C).
Storage & Reheating
Baked cannelloni keep in the refrigerator for 3 days, covered tightly in their dish or in a shallow airtight container. Reheat them under foil at 325°F (165°C) for 18 to 20 minutes, adding 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of warm milk around the edges first to replace the moisture the pasta absorbed while cold, and uncover for the last 4 minutes. A microwave leaves the tubes rubbery.
The tray freezes well unbaked and badly once baked. Assemble it fully, cover with film and then foil and freeze for up to 2 months, then bake from frozen at 350°F (175°C) covered for 50 minutes and uncovered at 375°F (190°C) for a further 15. A baked tray frozen and thawed releases water from the bechamel and never recovers. Components keep separately: filling 2 days, bechamel 2 days under a film, blanched sheets 1 day between damp cloths.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 4 servings of three cannelloni each:
Calories: 720 kcal
Total Fat: 38 g
Saturated Fat: 19 g
Trans Fat: 0.7 g
Unsaturated Fat: 17 g
Cholesterol: 235 mg
Sodium: 890 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 62 g
Fiber: 9 g
Total Sugars: 11 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 32 g
Lactose: 7 g
Principal micronutrients: calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, selenium, copper, folate, vitamin B2, vitamin B12
These figures are estimates and shift with the fat content of the ricotta and the age of the Parmigiano. Most of the salt in the blanching water is discarded.
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