Gluten free pumpkin, spinach and ricotta cannelloni! Ricotta and spinach cannelloni has long been one of my favourite meals. Tubes of stuffed pasta covered with a creamy béchamel sauce. What’s not to love? This is my version for those of us with tums on the more sensitive side, using gluten free lasagne sheets (much easier to get hold of than gluten free cannelloni tubes), a minimal lactose béchamel (though you can absolutely make it with regular milk) and a herby pumpkin filling, for full Autumn/Winter energy.
Much like a lasagne, there are a few different steps and elements that come together, but each is simple and combined they make something pretty special.
Gluten free pumpkin, spinach and ricotta cannelloni recipe notes:
- I don’t own a lasagne dish or oven dish big enough to fit the full recipe (on the Christmas list) so pictured is the roughly 29 x 23cm dish I used instead. Not pictured is the second very cute dish that fit the remaining 4 pasta tubes, that was ideal to give to my sister
- Chopping the spinach well makes it much easier to pipe and helps prevent piping explosions – even if your spinach says it’s chopped, it’s best to give it another go
- This recipe hasn’t been tested for FODMAPs, but uses FODMAP friendly ingredients and divided between six, should fit in with FODMAP limits. I follow the Monash University app data to create FODMAP friendly recipes – if unsure as always, please ask a dietician or GP!
Ingredients
For the béchamel sauce:
40g butter
40g gluten free plain flour
700ml lactose free milk or almond milk
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
300g frozen spinach
200g ricotta
1 free-range egg
2 tablespoons garlic infused olive oil
1 lemon, halved
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 x 425g tin pumpkin puree
Small bunch fresh basil, leaves picked
Small bunch fresh sage, leaves picked
14 sheets gluten free lasagne
1 tablespoon olive oil
40g strong cheddar cheese
Method
Heat your oven to 180C, 160C fan, gas mark 4 and get your ingredients ready to make the béchamel sauce first.
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Add the gluten free flour and stir continuously until the two ingredients form a paste (aka a roux). Cook the roux for a couple of minutes, stirring all the time to prevent any burning on the bottom of the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and add in a splash of the milk. It might look lumpy to begin with but keep stirring (sometimes I like to switch to a whisk at this point) and it should transform back to a smooth paste. Continue to add the rest of the milk, a splash at a time, whisking until it’s all incorporated. Place the pan back on the heat and add the bay leaves and nutmeg. Cook for around 4-5 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened (you’ll feel it), stirring often. Add in the mustard and season well. Place to one side and cover to prevent a skin from forming on top.
To make the fillings, defrost the spinach according to packet instructions and using a sieve over a bowl, squeeze out as much liquid as you can with the back of a spoon. Roughly chop the spinach and add to a large bowl, followed by the ricotta, beaten free-range egg, 1 tablespoon of the garlic infused olive oil, juice of half the lemon and the nutmeg. Season well and mix together.
For the pumpkin, add the puree to a separate large bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Add in a squeeze of lemon juice from the remaining lemon half and the other tablespoon of garlic infused olive oil. Finely chop the basil and most of the sage leaves (reserving a few for the top) and add those in too. Mix to combine.
Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add a generous amount of salt and a drizzle of olive oil (this prevents the pasta sheets from sticking together, very important). Cook the pasta sheets until a bit before al dente – you want them to be malleable but not falling apart as they’ll continue to cook in the oven. Remove them from the pan and place in rows on lightly oiled baking sheets.
Now it’s time to assemble! I like to put the two fillings into piping bags but using a spoon works just fine too. Pipe or spoon the two fillings lengthways down the pasta sheets (see picture) and roll them into tubes. Spread a layer of the béchamel on the bottom of a medium oven dish and top with your stuffed pasta tubes. Cover with the rest of the sauce and then grate over the cheddar cheese.
Place the dish in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, then add a few sage leaves on top, a drizzle of olive oil and bake for another 20. The cannelloni should be piping hot, golden on top and the sauce bubbling up the sides. Remove from the oven and let stand and settle for a couple of minutes before serving.
