A Family Favourite

Our Family tries to stick to a healthy diet Mon-Thur and allows treats on Fri-Sun. Part of that is "meat free monday". We aren't vegetarian, I just like to serve meat free meals occasionally during the week. This meal I have made countless times I don't even use a recipe any more. So, for the sake of blog land, I decided to cook my Cannelloni today but actually take note of what I put in it.
This recipe is enough for my big lasagne tray or two smaller trays (I used the double packet of foil ones with lids from woolies in bbq section). These are great because you can make this size batch and freeze one in case a friend needs a meal or you need a meal on a busy night!

Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni
INGREDIENTS:
1kg Ricotta (the dryer kind ofen found in the deli - I sometimes buy Brancourts from woolies)
2 eggs
1-2 packets frozen spinach (depending on taste 1 cup of cheese (you can cut calories and only add half a cup
1/4 tsp of fresh grinded nutmeg (using it from your spice rack is fine too)
2-4 cloves of fresh garlic minced or chopped finely!
salt and pepper to taste
2 packets Barilla Cannelloni tubes (or similar brand...i just find these on good value. you won't use all of them, but this mixture filled 32 tubes. The good thing is it's dry pasta, so keeps for next time).
SAUCE:
I never make this the same way each time. It depends what i have in the pantry. But this amount of tinned tomatoes and/ or pasta sauce works fine :) 1x pasta sauce bottle 1x tin tomatoes Some extra grated cheese to top with


METHOD:
Preheat oven to 180'C
1. Defrost Spinach in microwave or in fridge over night. Make sure you squueze all the water out of it before you add to ricotta.
2. In a big bowl add ricotta, spinach, eggs, cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper and mix well.
3. I use a teaspoon upside down to stuff the tubes. This is the most time consuming part of the recipe but worth it!
4. Once tray(s) is full, you can use any left over ricotta mixture to fill any gaps.
5. Mix the tomato mixture together and pour over the cannelloni tubes.
6. Sprinkle extra cheese down centre of the sauce and bake for about20-30 mins or untill cheese is melted and slightly golden and the cannelloni tubes are soft (do the skewer test).

**Serve with Salad**