My family and I have traveled extensively throughout Northern and Central Italy over the last 27 years. We always search for the best of the local fare that each region affords.
The Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia Romagna, and Tuscan are possibly the gastronomies we are most familiar with, as well the greatest contribution of the Campania to the world: the Napolitana Pizza. And Rome? What's special about food in Rome?
Rome is a city with a great number of restaurants where food is good, but not great. There are not a great number of dishes that we usually associate specifically with Rome, except for one major exception. Cannelloni ripieni con Ricotta e spinaci.
Ir is quite possible that the origins of Cannelloni are from another part of Italy. Some suggest the Piedmont. Historically, this may be true, but the reality today is that the best places where we have had Cannelloni has been in and nearby Rome. Why? I asked that same question once to a cook in Rome, and his answer was ("Perche piacono al Santo Padre!": "Because the Holy Father Father likes them.")
I spent several of my early years as a student, washing dishes in a kitchen in Rome, when I was studying in a Catholic Seminary. As I washed and dried plates, silverware and glasses, I would keep an eye on the cook, Cesare. Back in the 1960's, most kitchens in Italy were not run by a chef, but buy a cuoco, a simple, hardworking, fun-loving and good-hearted person.
Yesterday, I prepared a casserole dish of 24 cannelloni ripieni con Ricotta e spinaci. You can see the finished dish in the picture above. It might look burnt, but that's because I toasted the béchamel sauce with the oven roaster at the end.
I start out with a handful of frozen spinach. I chop a half of an onion. Part I use, sautéing it in olive oil over a slow flame. I add the spinach. I season with freshly-ground nutmeg and when the onion starts to "sing", I add some dry white wine and season. Once it is saturated, I add a small tab of butter. And then I take it out of the saucepan and chop it up, until it is almost a spinach cream. I add some parmesan cheese, and through it on top of the ricotta cheese. I blend the spinach together with the ricotta, using my bare hands. At the end, I beat an egg, season with salt, parsley and parmesan cheese, and pour into the ricotta cheese.
Then I fill each cannelloni shell, one by one, by hand. If you can't find cannelloni shells at your summer, you can use lasagna pasta, boil the past sheets until they become pliable, but the ricotta cheese in the middle, and roll the past around the cheese.
Then I make the salsa Bianca or white cream sauce. I sauté the rest of the finely chopped onion in olive oil. Add a drop of butter. Add dry white wine when the onions start to protest. Season. Add a quart of cream. Add Parmesan cheese. Pour the cream of the filled Cannelloni in the casserole oven dish. Bake until the cream starts to boil. I take them out of the oven. Turn them over. Check to see if the cannelloni are still raw or if they have soften up enough. Then I throw some red sauce on top: it cuts some of the overly-creamy taste, and it looks beautiful. I prepare my béchamel, with a little of the white sauce that was left over in the saucepan, to which I add a dap of butter, some flour and Parmesan cheese. After I pour some of the béchamel on top, I turn on the top roaster of my oven, and it less than 2 minutes, Eccoci qua, Cannelloni!!!
