Cannelloni with Vegan Mince Filling and Cheese and Leek Topping

Once upon a time, we published a cannelloni recipe in 2016, at the very beginning of this blog. It had a spinach and cashew ricotta filling, and the cannelloni made themselves at home in a marinara sauce. For whatever reason, we thought it would be a good idea to cut the cannelloni in half and place them in the casserole dish so that they stood like little towers in the sauce (emphasis on stood). And so it happened that the top part of the cannelloni was not covered in sauce and became quite dry in the oven. It was perfectly edible, but a few years later, we were so ashamed that we took the recipe offline again. And yet, we still regularly receive messages asking for this cannelloni recipe. You were probably much smarter than us when it came to arranging the filled pasta rolls, so you can't really imagine why this recipe no longer exists. In that sense, we fear that our fairy tale will not end quite so happily because THIS cannelloni recipe is really no longer alive today.

BUT STOP. In reality, the fairy tale goes even further. Firstly, we used the very delicious spinach and cashew ricotta filling later on, as it ended up in shell pasta - so if you're craving it, you can find the recipe here.

Secondly, we're finally publishing another cannelloni recipe on our blog today – and it really is a hundred times better than our dry pasta towers from back then. This time, we're filling the cannelloni with a mixture of vegan minced meat, vegan cream cheese, and sage – yes, the intense, aromatic culinary herb will play a very important role today, and I can only recommend that you don't leave it out. You can add the filling to the dry pasta tubes by hand, spoon or piping bag – what works best depends on the consistency of your filling, which is significantly influenced by the vegan minced meat. It definitely makes a difference whether you use soaked soy granules, „dry” or „fresh” vegan minced meat. If it doesn't work with a piping bag, then just use your (freshly washed) hands.

The sauce this time is also tomato-based, but it's probably the simplest tomato sauce in the world – and it's SO delicious. The recipe comes from Marcella Hazan, an Italian cookbook author who has sadly passed away. She became particularly famous for her books in the USA, where she also lived for a long time. The sauce consists of just four ingredients: whole tomatoes (we use canned tomatoes), an onion, butter (we use a vegan alternative, of course) and salt. You don't even have to finely dice the onion; just halve it, throw it into the pan with all the other ingredients, and leave it to simmer. I puree all the ingredients at the end because I really like the onion in it – in Hazan's recipe, it is removed at the end. I make this sauce really regularly and am delighted that I was finally able to include it in one of our recipes.

Last but not least, we top our cannelloni with a cheese and leek topping and fried sage leaves. First, the pasta is baked with the sauce alone. Then, the leek and vegan cheese are added and baked for just a few minutes to prevent them from burning. If you don't like leek, that's a shame – but of course, you can also just sprinkle vegan cheese over the cannelloni. After baking, the crispy sage leaves end up on top – and they really make a difference.

And if they haven't died, then hopefully, these cannelloni will live on the blog for a very, very long time.