Potato and porcini mushroom cannelloni (manicotti)
These delicious cannelloni (manicotti) are filled with potato puree and porcini mushrooms and baked in a cheesy bechamel sauce. Perfect as an alternative way to serve large baked pasta tubes.
Servings: 4
Calories: 744kcal
Ingredients
- 16 cannelloni (manicotti) 4 cannelloni per person
- 400 g potatoes (14oz) or leftover mashed potatoes
- 200 g Fresh/frozen porcini mushrooms (7oz) or 50g dried (7oz) (if fresh cleaned and sliced, if dry, soaked in warm water for 20 mins and drained)
- 200 g Pioppini mushrooms (7oz) cleaned and bottom of stalks cut off
- 1 handful fresh parsley chopped
- 1 shallot or small onion peeled and finely chopped
- 100 g Parmigiano or grana cheese (3.5oz) grated. Vegetarians should use vegetarian cheese
- 1/2 glass white wine
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
For the béchamel
- 50 g all purpose flour (2oz)
- 50 g butter (2oz) plus a bit extra for puree
- 1 Lt fresh milk (4 cups) plus a bit extra for puree
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
Instructions
- Boil the potatoes unpeeled in salted water until they are soft. Drain them, peel them and mash them with a bit of milk and butter until you have quite a creamy but rough puree. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and fry the chopped shallot/onion until it starts to soften.
- Add the cleaned and sliced mushrooms and chopped parsley and cook for a few minutes. Turn up the heat and add the white wine. Allow the alcohol to evaporate and turn down the heat. Simmer until the mushrooms are cooked.
Make the béchamel
- Melt the butter in a saucepan, sift the flour into it and make the roux. Add salt and nutmeg and pour the milk a little at a time into the mixture, stirring continuously to prevent lumps forming. Add a third of the grated cheese and continue stirring over a low heat until the sauce thickens.
Put the dish together
- Put the puree in a bowl, add half the remaining Parmesan, the cooked mushrooms and a pinch of nutmeg. Use a hand held blender to make the pieces in the mixture a bit smaller but keep the puree a little rough.
- Now using a teaspoon, fill your cannelloni with the mixture of potatoes and porcini. I fill first from one end and then from the other.
- Spread some bechamel sauce over the bottom of an oven dish, place the filled cannelloni side by side in the dish and cover them with the rest of the bechamel sauce.
- Sprinkle the cannelloni with the rest of the grated Parmesan and bake at 200 degrees for about 30-40 minutes. I covered the dish with aluminum foil for the first 15 minutes.
- Once ready, let the potato and porcini mushroom cannelloni (manicotti) stand for 5 minutes then serve.
Notes
Fresh pasta cooks very fast and there’s probably no need to cover it. Just bake until the top is a nice golden crispy brown and the pasta is cooked enough to eat. If the pasta doesn’t seem cooked and the top is already brown enough, just cover the dish with aluminium foil until the pasta is ready.
For dried pasta tubes make the béchamel a little liquid as the pasta has to cook in it. Check the pasta is cooked before serving. Depending on the quality of the pasta it may take a bit longer. I use dried cannelloni from a pasta makers called Pasta Rigo but they mostly make pasta for other brands so they don't sell directly to the public. Another cannelloni I like is made by Garofalo!