When we think of Italian pasta recipes, we are often afraid of overdoing it with calories. With this recipe for gratin spinach cannelloni, we can eat pasta without regrets, since even the bechamel is very light so that it hardly contributes calories to this preparation.
In addition, the bechamel layer is very thin and is only on the top, so we will practically be having some Catalan spinach presented in an appetizing wrapper, which will make the smallest of the house are encouraged and get used to enjoying this type of dishes.
This recipe will be especially tasty using fresh seasonal spinach, but it also looks great using frozen spinach, which allows us to enjoy it all year round.
I had some Catalan spinach leftovers at home and I decided take advantage of them using a paste called schiaffoni which I could describe as half cannelloni that I think is perfect to use in recipes for simple fillings like the one today.
To do these mini-cannelloni with spinach gratin, We cook the pasta according to the manufacturer’s instructions and when it is done, we cool it and drain it well, proceeding to fill it and cover it with a light béchamel sauce, perfect to cover the schiaffoni when they are ready. If you do not have leftovers, you can always make the Catalan spinach recipe from scratch expressly to prepare this dish, it does not take more than 20 minutes.
After filling the Schiaffoni pasta or the cannelloni sheets, we place them in a source, grouping them so that there is almost no space between them. After cover with the bechamel sauce, lightly sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and we finish the recipe by baking for six minutes and gratinating another three or four until the surface is golden.
With what to accompany the spinach cannelloni
Like the Catalan spinach cannelloni They are quite satisfying due to the mixture of pasta, béchamel and filling, we propose a light dessert to finish off the menu. It can be, for example, a piece of summer fruit or some light chocolate and avocado truffles to give us another joy at the end.
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