Cannelloni Bolognese

Heat 1tbsp of olive oil in a deep pan, add the beef mince and on a medium to high heat brown it off. Once browned remove from the pan and set aside.

Add the second tablespoon of oil into the same pan if needed and on a medium heat add the bacon lardons and cook, once they are nicely coloured add the diced onion and carrot, continue to cook until they are nice and tender, try not to colour them or they may turn bitter, if the pan gets to dry at any point before they are cooked add a splash of water.

Now add the garlic, cook gently for 1 min and then go in with the dried rosemary, oregano, thyme and salt and pepper and cook off for another 2mins until fragrant.

Re add the browned mince to the pan and give it all a good stir.

Now add the tinned tomatoes, sugar, hot beef stock, for now make sure the heat is turned to a medium high and leave to bubble away and reduce.

Once reduced by half, have a taste and add a little more seasoning if needed according to your personal taste... be sure to blow before you taste it'll be hot!!

At this stage you can turn the heat down and allow to reduce a little further, we need the sauce to be nice and thick for stuffing, not too loose.

Once its at the right thickness remove from the heat to cool. Spoon off any excess oil from on top.

While the sauce is cooling lets make the easy white sauce.

In a small saucepan add the milk, onion, bay leaf and cloves and bring to the boil, once it comes to boiling point give it a stir and remove from the heat and just let it sit there for 5mins.

In another saucepan add the butter and melt it on a medium heat. Once melted add the plain flour and stir constantly for a few minutes until the flour is 'cooked out' this basically means until the flour taste has disappeared and its well combined with the butter. You now have something called a roux.

Strain your milk in to a measuring jug. Begin to pour the milk little by little into the roux, say about 80ml at a time but it doesn't have to be precise. After each addition stir continuously until the milk has combined. The first few additions it will look like something has gone wrong and the roux will just absorbed the milk but don't panic by the the time you've poured the last bit of milk in you will have a delicious thick and smooth white sauce. (I have got an old video on my YouTube channel you can watch)

Keep stirring over a low heat until its nice and thickened. If you find the sauce is still a little thick just quickly warm up a little bit more milk and add it in, but for me the thickness using 400ml of milk is just right.

Season generously with salt pepper and grated nutmeg until it suits your taste. Take off the heat and set aside.

‍

To assemble

Here comes the fiddly part.

Turn the oven on to 160ºc fan

In an oven dish that you would bake a lasagna in layer a very thin amount of your bolognese sauce, the pasta will sit on this so don't use too much we need to make sure we have enough to stuff all the pasta.

Now grab a cannelloni tube and turn upright, making sure the bolognese is cool enough to handle use a teaspoon to spoon in the mixture until the tube is full then carefully lay down. Repeat with the rest of your tubes laying them next to each other in the dish.

Now pour any extra bolognese sauce over the top and around the tubes. Pour the white sauce over the top, try to cover all of the tubes. Sprinkle over the grated cheese and scatter the basil leaves.

Place in the oven after 20minutes turn the heat up to 180ºc fan and cook for another 25mins until bubbling and golden.

‍

Serve with a lovely side salad!

‍