Our cooking project #1: chicken, spinach & ricotta cannelloni

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 large brown onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic
• 200 g minced chicken
• 250 g spinach, chopped
• 250 g ricotta
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• Italian herbs (oregano, basil, thyme, sage)
• 690 g bottle of passata (tomato puree)
• salt and pepper
• Grated mozzarella (as much as you desire, we used about 50g)
• 100 g dried lasagna sheets (7 sheets of the Barilla brand), boiled briefly to soften enough to be pliable without breaking but not soft enough to tear - a step before the edible al dente stage

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Preparation

• Prepare the filling and sauce:
  Heat oil in frypan over medium heat and cook the onion and garlic for a few minutes until the onion is soft and slightly caramelised. Set aside half of the cooked onion and garlic mix.
• Add the chicken mince to the remaining half onion and garlic mix in the frypan, and cook for a couple of minutes until the meat changes colour, breaking up lumps as you cook.
• Transfer to a large mixing bowl and allow to cool. Briefly blanch the chopped spinach in boiling water, then drain it and allow to cool. Add the spinach, ricotta and nutmeg to the chicken in the mixing bowl, and season with salt, pepper and herbs to taste. Mix well.
• To make the sauce, return the reserved onion and garlic mix to the frypan and add the passata. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for a few minutes over low heat. Season with salt, pepper and herbs to taste.
  
• Assembling:
  Preheat the oven to 180degC. Place one of the lasagna sheets on a flat surface, and spoon some of the filling along one short edge of the pasta. Roll it up, and repeat for all the lasagna sheets or until filling is used up.
• Spread half the tomato sauce over the base of a 20cmx30cm baking dish, and arrange the cannelloni in the dish.
• Spread the remaining sauce over the cannelloni and top with grated cheese. Bake for 20 minutes, and serve with salad.