Four-Cheese Spinach Cannelloni

I obsessed over cannelloni for days. I ate quiche a few days ago from one of the cafeterias in school and it sucked. So I decided to respond to my own spinach and feta cravings by tinking about stuff like cannelloni and lasagna. So the plan set: what better day to do it then on a lazy Saturday. And did I look forward to Saturday.

And here, Saturday. I woke up to really bad weather today. It was cloudy and windy and I dreaded braving the 20-minute walk from where I live to the nearest grocery since walking in the rain with galebursts have rendered my big umbrella useless and the cold harsh and even colder. Against my better judgment, I finally decided to put on my jeans and jacket because I am craving spinach and feta cheese. At eleven in the morning, I was on my way to Coles. I was back around 1:30 in the afternoon all drenched with a recipe in mind that will turn the humble spinach and feta combination into an ambitious mix with four kinds of cheese (last minute revisions always happen in the market):

250 g. ricotta cheese

150 g. feta cheese, crushed

75 g. pecorino romano, grated

75 g. goat's cheese, crushed

500 g. spinach leaves (fresh or frozen, just make sure you thaw it first)

1 tsp. nutmeg

2 cloves of garlic

3 cups of your favorite tomato-based pasta sauce

2 tbsp. olive oil

2 tbsp. butter

400 grams of dried cannelloni

salt and pepper to taste

grated mozarella cheese

aluminium foil

Pre-heat oven to about 150 degrees celsius.

In a big pot or in a wok, heat the olive oil and let the garlic simmer for about 15-20 seconds so as not to burn. Add in the butter and then the spinach. It's bound to make a big pile at first but will reduce eventually when the leaves wilt. Stir the leaves so as to distribute the oil and garlic through it. Mix in some salt and pepper in the process.

Once the leaves have wilted, add the feta, pecorino, goat's cheese and the ricotta and stir like there's no tomorrow to distribute them evenly over the spinach. Add nutmeg and salt and pepper as you go along.

Wait for the mixture to cool down a bit and then stuff them in your cannellonis. A piping bag with a big opening helps a lot. I didn't have a piping bag with me so I made a big mess even if I stuffed them on top of the same pot I used for cooking. Holding the cannelloni shell upright, I used a teaspoon to put the spinach on one end and pushed it down with the other end of the spoon. It was messy but it worked. Make sure your hands are clean.

Pour in 1/4 of the tomato sauce on a baking dish and lay your cannellonis in allowing at least 1 cm. gaps in between as they are bound to expand. Once every cannelloni's in place, pour the rest of the sauce on top of them. Top with a generous amount of mozarella. Cover the baking dish with foil and place in the oven for about 40 minutes.

After 40 minutes, remove the foil to allow the mozarella to char a little, and leave inside the oven for another 10 minutes. Take it out of the oven and let it set for about 5 minutes more and serve.

It took me about two hours to do this. My biggest mistake was the tomato sauce. I used store-bought tomato sauce and it was too sour so it somewhat drowned the tanginess of the cheese. I also ran out of mozarella. Not perfect but good enough for a cold and rainy Saturday fix. There's always next time. Or is there?

Will I do it again? I definitely won't brave bad weather for it again. Infact, I probably will not make cannelloni ever again as its just too time consuming. Next time I crave for spinach and feta cheese, I will make lasagna.