Napolitano Cannelloni: Italian dish

Napolitano Cannelloni is a spectacular dish with a deep rich tomato sauce over thin noodles stuffed with cheeses, egg, and prosciutto. I will discuss making noodle dough, mozzarella, and prosciutto in other articles, but even with store-bought ingredients, the dish will be a sensation. One of the ingredients, prosciutto, literally means ham in Italian. But in English, it refers to the cured, dried, and spiced ham found in most supermarket delis which the Italians refer to as prosciutto crudo meaning raw.


Ingredients (serves 6):



    * 12 oz ricotta cheese
    * 2 large eggs
    * 8 oz mozzarella cheese (fresh!) cubed
    * 4 oz prosciutto, chopped
    * 4 oz parmesan cheese grated Ragù finto tomato meat sauce – make what is called for in the recipe.
    * Egg pasta – if you make it yourself, you should make 14 - 4" x 6" rectangles of thin dough. See my homemade pasta. If you use my recipe make sure you make the dough thinner than suggested in the recipe (one notch). You can also buy the manicotti shells found in most supermarkets. Fresh dough is out of this world, and I always recommend it.
    * Fresh basil


Mixing



In a large bowl mix the eggs and ricotta cheese until it is creamy. Add the mozzarella, prosciutto, parmesan, and one tablespoon Ragù finto sauce then mix.


Eggs and ricotta


Pasta and Cannelloni


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. The pasta should be cooked in salted water al dente. Once the rectangular pasta has cooked (rinse with water to cool), place on a clean cloth. Disperse the cheese mixture evenly among the 14 pasta rectangles and roll each up (leave the ends open). I use a 10" x 14" glass baking dish and spread generous amounts of the tomato sauce on the bottom before I lay the pasta in the dish. The cannelloni should be in one layer. Use the rest of the tomato sauce on top of the cannelloni along with some grated parmesan cheese if you choose. Cover and bake for 15 minutes and then uncover and continue to bake for an additional 15 minutes or until the sauce is browned. Garnish with basil and serve.

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Quick and Delicious for the Entire Family

Do you need easy Italian recipes that you can cook up fast that are delicious and inexpensive?

Below are three very simple Italian recipes that do not require much time to prepare and only use several ingredients that you may even have on hand.

This is the beauty of Italian cooking. You do not need a ton of ingredients to cook up a delicious meal.

The key with cooking great Italian food is to use fresh quality ingredients, like fresh herbs and fine olive oil. And the number one most important ingredient in any type of cooking is of course Love!

Enjoy and Buon Appetito!

EASY ITALIAN MARINARA SAUCE RECIPE

Here is a great recipe for marinara sauce using canned tomatoes. This marinara sauce is delicious over your favorite pasta, on top of pizza and over mussels and shrimp. The beauty of this sauce is that it can be used with a number of other recipes, so it's a great starting point in Italian Cooking and it is very easy to make.

You can use either fresh or canned plum tomatoes for this recipe, however using fresh tomatoes requires more time and preparation, so I prefer to use canned. If you do plan on using fresh tomatoes, make certain the tomatoes are ripe and in season.

For the canned tomatoes, I prefer Rienzi brand tomatoes. I have tried a number of different brands of canned tomatoes and Rienzi has the best flavor amongst the supermarket brands, in my opinion.

Marinara Sauce Ingredients:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped (More or less depending on how much you like garlic)

1 35 ounce can of whole plum tomatoes with liquid

Salt to taste

Crushed red pepper to taste (You can use black pepper if you wish)

10 - 12 fresh basil leaves , torn

1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano

Directions:

• Open your can of tomatoes and crush them by hand into a bowl and set aside.

• Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add your garlic to the oil and cook until soft and lightly browned. Be sure to watch the garlic to make sure it doesn't burn.

• Carefully add the tomatoes along with their liquid into the pan with the garlic and oil. Use caution when adding the tomatoes to the hot oil. The oil can splatter. Add the oregano.

• Stir the mixture and bring to a boil. Season with a bit of salt and red or black pepper. Lower the heat so that the sauce is reduced to a simmer. Break up the tomatoes as it cooks with a spoon until your sauce is chunky. You want the sauce to simmer until thickened, about 20 - 25 minutes.

• Add your fresh basil a few minutes before the sauce is done. Taste the sauce and add more salt or pepper if needed.

• Serve over your favorite pasta.

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