Italian Beef and Pork Cannelloni | Cannelloni di Carne
Cannelloni di Carne are sheets of fresh egg pasta rolled around a braised beef and pork filling, veiled with tomato ragù and besciamella and baked until the top blisters and the exposed edges catch. They belong to the same family as lasagne, but the rolled tube changes the dish: every portion carries its own sealed core of meat rather than a layer that has been cut through.
The whole thing stands on how wet the filling is. Meat braised until dry drinks the sauce out of the dish and leaves the pasta tough. Meat still swimming in liquid loosens the besciamella and slumps out of the tube. What you want holds its shape on a spoon and releases a little moisture when pressed. Milk in the braise and egg with cheese as a binder get you there.
Everything else is restraint. The ragù is a plain tomato sauce, not a second meat sauce. The besciamella is poured fluid rather than thick, so it can move between the tubes as the dish bakes. Done this way the four elements stay legible on the fork: pasta, meat, tomato, cream.
Yield: 6 servings, 12 cannelloni. Prep: 1 hour 15 minutes. Rest: 30 minutes for the dough. Cook: 1 hour 40 minutes. Total: about 3 hours. Difficulty: intermediate. Course: primo piatto. Region: Campania and Emilia Romagna.
The Story
Cannelloni are one of the few Italian pasta shapes with a traceable and recent birth. The word means large reeds, and until the early twentieth century it described something else: in Pellegrino Artusi's 1891 manual the cannelloni are a fried sweet. The savoury rolled version is credited to Sorrento, to the restaurant O Parrucchiano La Favorita, where the cook Salvatore Coletta is said to have rolled sheets around a filling around 1907 instead of layering them.
The technique travelled north into a kitchen already prepared for it. Emilia Romagna had been baking sheets of egg pasta with ragù and balsamella for generations, that white sauce having entered Italian domestic cooking under the name balsamella in the same Artusi. Rolling the sheets into tubes was a small step, and by the 1930s the dish was a Sunday staple across northern and central Italy.
What carried cannelloni around the world was industry. Dried tubes that could be filled without rolling appeared in the 1950s, and the dish became a supermarket fixture from Argentina to Australia. The compromise was real: an extruded tube has a thick wall and needs a great deal of liquid to soften, which is why so many versions arrive swimming in sauce. Made with fresh sheets, rolled thin, it tastes like a different recipe.
Ingredients
For the fresh pasta
Tipo 00 flour, 1 3/4 cups (220 g)
Semola rimacinata, 1/4 cup (40 g)
Large eggs, 3
Extra virgin olive oil, 1 tsp (5 ml)
Fine sea salt, 1/2 tsp (3 g)
For the meat filling
Ground beef chuck, 10 oz (285 g)
Ground pork shoulder, 8 oz (225 g)
Yellow onion, finely diced, 3 oz (85 g)
Carrot, finely diced, 2 oz (60 g)
Celery stalk, finely diced, 2 oz (60 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Unsalted butter, 1 tbsp (14 g)
Dry red wine, 1/2 cup (120 ml)
Whole milk, 1/2 cup (120 ml)
Tomato paste, 1 tbsp (16 g)
Grated Parmigiano Reggiano, 1/2 cup (50 g)
Large egg, 1
Freshly grated nutmeg, 1 pinch
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the tomato ragù
Canned San Marzano tomatoes, crushed by hand, 2 cups (480 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Garlic clove, lightly crushed, 1
Fresh basil sprig, 1
Fine sea salt, 1/2 tsp (3 g)
For the besciamella
Whole milk, 3 cups (720 ml)
Unsalted butter, 4 tbsp (57 g)
Tipo 00 flour, 1/3 cup (40 g)
Freshly grated nutmeg, 1 pinch
Fine sea salt, 3/4 tsp (5 g)
For finishing
Grated Parmigiano Reggiano, 3/4 cup (75 g)
Unsalted butter for the baking dish, 1 tbsp (14 g)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preparation
Step 1
Make the pasta dough. Mound the tipo 00 flour and the semola, make a well and break in the eggs with the oil and salt. Draw the flour in with a fork, then knead on an unfloured board for 10 minutes, until the surface is smooth and slightly tacky. Wrap it and rest it at room temperature for 30 minutes so the gluten relaxes and the sheets roll without snapping back.
Step 2
Build the soffritto and brown the meat. Sweat the onion, carrot and celery in the oil and butter over medium low heat for 12 minutes, until soft with no colour. Raise the heat, add the beef and pork, break them up, then leave them alone long enough to catch and brown in patches. Meat stirred constantly steams grey and the filling tastes flat. Season lightly here, since cheese and ragù bring salt later.
Step 3
Braise the filling with wine and milk. Pour in the red wine and reduce until the pan smells of wine rather than alcohol, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, cook it against the base for a minute, then add the milk. Drop to a bare simmer, cover partially and cook 45 minutes. The mixture should end moist and glossy rather than wet.
Step 4
Finish and bind the filling. Off the heat, let the meat cool to just warm, about 20 minutes. Stir in the Parmigiano and the beaten egg, grate over the nutmeg, season properly. Egg added to hot meat scrambles and the filling turns granular, so the wait is not optional. Taste now, because nothing can be corrected once it is inside the pasta.
Step 5
Make the tomato ragù. Warm the oil with the crushed garlic until fragrant and pale gold, then lift the garlic out. Add the tomatoes and salt, drop in the basil and simmer uncovered for 25 minutes, until the sauce coats a spoon and no watery rim separates on a plate. Remove the basil. This sauce stays simple because its job is acidity and moisture.
Step 6
Make the besciamella. Melt the butter, whisk in the flour and cook the roux over medium low heat for 2 minutes without colouring it. Add the warm milk in three additions, whisking smooth before each one. Simmer gently 8 minutes, then season with salt and nutmeg. Stop while it still ribbons off the whisk rather than mounding on it: a thick besciamella never spreads between the tubes.
Step 7
Roll, cut and blanch the sheets. Roll the dough to about 1 mm and cut twelve rectangles of roughly 4 by 5 inches (10 by 13 cm). Boil a wide pan of water and salt it at 10 g per litre, less than for dried pasta because the sheets go into an already salted dish. Blanch two at a time for 30 seconds, lift into cold water, then lay flat on damp cloth, pliable but not cooked through.
Step 8
Fill, roll and bake. Butter a baking dish and spread a thin layer of ragù over the base. Pipe a finger of filling along the short edge of each sheet and roll it loosely, seam down, leaving a gap between the tubes so sauce can circulate. Spoon the rest of the ragù over in stripes, pour the besciamella across, scatter the Parmigiano and grind over pepper. Bake at 375°F (190°C) for 30 to 35 minutes, until blistered and golden at the edges.
Plating
Rest the dish out of the oven for 10 to 15 minutes before cutting it. Straight from the oven the besciamella is fluid and the filling loose, and a portion lifted then collapses on the plate. Fifteen minutes later the starch has set and a spatula lifts two cannelloni intact with the crust attached.
Serve two tubes per person on warm, not hot, plates, side by side and parallel. Slide the spatula under from the short end and keep the browned top facing up, since that blistered surface is the signature of the dish. Spoon a little of the sauce pooled at the edges of the dish along one side of the plate, never over the top, so the crust stays dry. Finish with a light grating of Parmigiano and a turn of black pepper at the table.
Professional Technique
The controlling technique is the milk braise of the filling, and it is doing chemistry rather than adding flavour. Beef and pork simmered in wine and tomato alone contract and toughen, because acid tightens muscle protein. Milk works the other way: its calcium and proteins soften the fibres over a long gentle cook, and its lactose browns against the pan, which is why a milk braised filling tastes rounder than the same meat cooked in stock.
The second technique is the deliberate imbalance between the two sauces. The ragù is reduced until it barely runs and the besciamella is left visibly fluid, both chosen for what happens in the oven rather than for what looks right in the pan. Over 35 minutes the pasta draws liquid out of whatever surrounds it, so a thick besciamella sets into a lid before it reaches the gaps between the tubes, while a loose tomato sauce boils and separates. Reversing the two consistencies is the commonest structural error in baked pasta.
The third is the 30 second blanch. A raw sheet finishes tough where it is exposed and pasty where it is buried, because it has no hydrated starch of its own, while a sheet boiled until cooked tears as you roll it.
Texture and Moisture Control
Four water contents have to be balanced against each other: pasta partly hydrated from the blanch, filling moist but self supporting, ragù reduced, besciamella loose. If one is wrong the oven redistributes moisture until something is ruined. A wet filling thins the besciamella and the top never browns; a dry filling pulls water out of the pasta and the tubes come out leathery. A spoonful of filling mounded on a plate should hold its shape and leave only a faint damp ring.
Starch is the setting agent and it needs time as much as heat. The flour in the besciamella and the starch leaching from the pasta bind the sauce together, but that binding only completes as the temperature falls back below about 175°F (80°C). That is the real reason for the rest.
Browning needs a dry surface, so keep the top layer of besciamella thin and do not bury it under deep cheese, which insulates instead of colouring. If the dish is bubbling but still pale at 30 minutes, move it to the upper third of the oven for 4 minutes rather than raising the temperature.
Professional Mise en Place
Almost everything here is made ahead and assembled cold. Only the bake and the rest are fixed in time.
Equipment and tools
Pasta machine or a long rolling pin, and a cutting wheel
Wide heavy sauté pan with a lid for the filling
Heavy saucepan and a balloon whisk for the besciamella
Wide shallow pan for blanching and a bowl of iced water
Piping bag with a plain 1/2 inch (12 mm) tip, and a 9 by 13 inch (23 by 33 cm) dish
Prepared ahead
Meat filling, up to 2 days ahead, egg and cheese stirred in on the day only
Tomato ragù, up to 3 days ahead, refrigerated
Besciamella, up to 1 day ahead, surface covered directly with film
Pasta sheets rolled, blanched and layered between damp cloths, same day
Parmigiano grated and kept covered so it does not dry out
Service setup
Dish assembled up to 4 hours ahead, 30 minutes at room temperature before baking
Oven fully preheated to 375°F (190°C), rack in the middle
Besciamella warmed and slackened with a little milk if it has set
Timer set for the rest as well as for the bake
Plates warm but not hot, spatula and serving spoon ready
Chef Tips
Buy the meat coarsely ground, or ask the butcher to put chuck and pork shoulder once through a large plate. Fine mince packs into a paste as it cooks and the filling loses all texture.
Assemble the dish cold and bake it from cool room temperature, never from hot components. Hot filling inside a raw sheet starts cooking the pasta before it reaches the oven and the tubes go shapeless.
Leave a gap of about half an inch between the tubes. Packed tight they touch on every side, the besciamella cannot reach between them and the sides stay dry while the top browns.
If you cannot roll pasta thin enough, use dried lasagne sheets rather than dried cannelloni tubes. Soak them until pliable, cut to size and roll them the same way. Dried tubes have walls too thick for this quantity of sauce.
Common Mistakes
Making the besciamella too thick. A sauce that mounds on the whisk sits on top as a lid and never travels into the gaps, leaving the pasta beneath dry. It should ribbon off the whisk and pour freely.
Adding the egg while the filling is hot. The egg sets on contact and the filling turns granular and slightly rubbery. Cool the meat to just warm, about 20 minutes off the heat, before egg and cheese go in.
Skipping the blanch on fresh sheets. Raw pasta has no hydrated starch of its own, so it finishes tough at the exposed edges and pasty in the middle. Thirty seconds in salted water and a plunge into cold water is enough.
Cutting the dish straight from the oven. The starch has not set and the first portion collapses however carefully it is lifted. Rest it 10 to 15 minutes and the tubes hold their shape on the spatula.
Using a meat sauce as well as a meat filling. A full ragù alla bolognese over meat filled tubes flattens the dish into one note and adds enough liquid to soften the crust. Keep the outer sauce a plain tomato one.
Wine Pairing
Chianti Classico DOCG: The reference match. Sangiovese carries high acidity and a savoury sour cherry fruit that cuts through the besciamella and the fat of the pork, while its fine tannin grips the browned meat without drying the palate. Its faintly bitter finish picks up the caramelised edges of the pasta.
Barbera d'Asti DOCG: Chosen for the opposite reason: almost no tannin and a great deal of acidity, which refreshes between mouthfuls of a rich baked pasta without adding structure to an already substantial plate. The dark plum fruit sits well beside the tomato, and a young unoaked bottling served cool works best.
Romagna Sangiovese DOC: The regional choice for the Emilian half of the dish, lighter in the shoulders than its Tuscan cousin. Red berry fruit, a dusty earthy note and moderate tannin frame the meat without competing with it.
Valpolicella Ripasso DOC: The bottle for a version made with a generous hand. Refermented on the Amarone skins, it gains body and a dried cherry depth that stands up to a deep Parmigiano crust while keeping fresh acidity underneath. Serve it at 61°F (16°C).
Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro DOC: The local answer to rich baked pasta in Emilia, in the dry secco version. The bubble scrubs fat off the palate more efficiently than acidity alone, and Grasparossa gives more tannic structure than other Lambrusco grapes. Serve it at 54°F (12°C).
Storage & Reheating
Baked cannelloni keep refrigerated in a covered container for 3 days and improve on the second day, once the starch has set. Cool the dish before covering it, since film over a hot dish traps steam that condenses back onto the crust. Assembled but unbaked dishes keep 24 hours and go straight into the oven with 10 minutes added.
Reheat in the oven, never in a microwave, which boils the water in the pasta and turns the tubes gummy. Cover loosely with foil, set the oven to 325°F (165°C) and give it 20 to 25 minutes, then uncover for the last 5 to bring the top back. If the surface looks dry going in, spoon over 2 tablespoons of warm milk.
The dish freezes well unbaked. Assemble it without the final Parmigiano, wrap in two layers and freeze for up to 2 months. Bake from frozen at 350°F (175°C) for 55 to 65 minutes, covered for the first 40, adding the cheese when the foil comes off.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 6 servings of 2 cannelloni each:
Calories: 690 kcal
Total Fat: 36 g
Saturated Fat: 17 g
Trans Fat: 0.6 g
Unsaturated Fat: 17 g
Cholesterol: 215 mg
Sodium: 780 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 52 g
Fiber: 3 g
Total Sugars: 11 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 38 g
Lactose: 7 g
Principal micronutrients: calcium, phosphorus, zinc, iron, vitamin B12, selenium, vitamin A
These figures are estimates. They vary most with the fat content of the meat and with how much salted blanching water the pasta retains.
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