Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Pasta

About Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Pasta

Ingredients

• Stuffing
• Spinach, blanched and chopped 2 cups
• Ricotta cheese / cottage cheese (paneer), crumbled 1 cup
• Breadcrumbs 2 tsps
• Salt to ts
• Canneloni pasta
• Refined flour (maida) 100 gms + to dust
• Egg 1
• Olive oil 1 tsp + 1 tbsp
• Salt to taste
• Butter to grease
• Breadcrumbs ¼ cup
• Parmesan cheese / processed cheese, grated ¼ cup
• Sauce
• Tomatoes, finely chopped 1½ cups
• Olive oil 2 tsps
• Garlic clove, finely chopped 1
• Dried oregano ½ tsp
• Dried sage ½ tsp
• Dried thyme ½ tsp
• Dried rosemary ½ tsp

How to Make Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Pasta (Stepwise Photos)

Method

1. To make the pasta, take refined flour in a bowl, make a well in the centre, put egg, 1 tsp olive oil and salt in it. Push small portions of the flour with a fork into the well and mix till the mixture becomes crumbly.
2. Add sufficient water and knead into a dough. Stretch the dough with you palms, fold back and keep doing this till the dough is smooth. Cover with a damp cloth, so that it does not dry, and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
3. To make stuffing, take spinach, cheese/paneer, breadcrumbs and salt in another bowl and mix. Keep it in the refrigerator till it is time to use it.
4. To make sauce, heat olive oil in a non-stick pan, add garlic and saute till it turns brown. Add tomatoes, oregano, sage, thyme and rosemary and mix well.
5. Add 1 cup water and salt and mix well. Cook till the mixture gets a sauce like consistency.
6. Sprinkle flour on the worktop, keep the dough on it and roll out into a thin rectangle.
7. Cut the pasta sheet into 3x4 inch rectangles
8. Preheat oven to 200º C. Grease a baking dish with some butter.
9. Boil sufficient water in a deep non-stick pan, add 1 tbsp olive oil and salt. Slide in the pasta rectangles and cook for 3-4 minutes. Drain the pasta rectangles and put them in a large bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process, ensuring that the pasta rectangles do not tear or break.
10. Drain the pasta rectangles and place them on the worktop. Place a little spinach cheese/paneer stuffing in the centre of each rectangle and roll into cylinders.
11. Spread half the tomato sauce in the greased baking dish, place the pasta rolls over it and top it with the remaining sauce.
12. Sprinkle breadcrumbs and grated cheese on top of the rolls. Keep the dish in the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes. Serve hot.

Additional Tips and Tricks

About chef

Chef Shilarna Vaze (Chinu)

Shilarna is currently doing a show " Sunny Side Up" on FOOD FOOD.

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Chaitrali Deshmukh

Thank you for the amazing instructions.

I have success w/ my dosa but does not last long stored in the refrigerator.

Maybe I am fermenting for too long, or add the salt before the rise?

I also was wondering if it is important to blend separately or can it be blended all together?

Reply

Chef Saransh Goila

Hi Chaitrali,
Yes, cut down the fermentation time and add salt only to the required portion at the time of making the dosa. Also storing in smaller containers just enough for a day helps. Once the batter in a larger container is disturbed (by stirring or scooping out a little etc), I feel it turns sour faster. You can blend them together if you want. But we do it separately because we want the dal batter to become fluffy and the rice batter slightly coarse. Fluffy dal batter makes the dosas light and coarse rice batter makes them extra crispy without making the dosas hard. Hope this helps