Italian-Argentine Sunday cannelloni, filled with ricotta-spinach or ham-cheese, covered in béchamel and tomato sauce, and gratinéed until golden. The canonical Sunday pasta of Italian-Argentine home cooking.
Canelones are the canonical Sunday pasta of Italian-Argentine home cooking, a tradition brought by the millions of Italian immigrants who settled in Argentina in the early 20th century. Fresh pasta rectangles are rolled around a filling of ricotta and spinach, or ham and cheese, arranged in a baking dish, covered in béchamel and tomato sauce, topped with grated cheese, and baked until bubbling and golden. The dish is made on Sunday mornings for the extended family lunch, and the Argentine version is characteristically generous with the sauce and the cheese. The filling and the sauces can be prepared ahead, making it a practical dish for large gatherings.
Tender pasta rolls with a creamy, cheesy or ham-filled interior, blanketed in a rich béchamel and tangy tomato sauce, the top crisp and golden with melted cheese. Each forkful is soft, hot and deeply satisfying.
The dish is built in three layers: filling, pasta, sauce. The filling is ricotta and blanched spinach (or diced ham and cheese), seasoned and bound with egg. Fresh pasta rectangles are boiled briefly, then rolled around the filling into cylinders. The cylinders are arranged in a baking dish, covered with béchamel (butter, flour, milk) and tomato sauce (tuco), topped with grated mozzarella or Parmesan, and baked at 190 degrees C for 25 to 30 minutes until the sauce bubbles and the top is golden. The béchamel and tomato together give the Argentine signature: a dual-sauce coverage that is richer than the Italian original.
Variations
Some fill with chicken or beef. A version without tomato sauce uses only béchamel.
On the Palate
Where Canelones Argentinos sits in the Argentinian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6How it's made
6 steps · 40 min
- 17 min
Make the filling: mix 300g ricotta with 200g blanched chopped spinach, 1 egg, 50g grated Parmesan, salt and nutmeg.
- 25 min
Boil 12 fresh pasta rectangles 2 minutes; drain and lay flat.
- 35 min
Spoon filling along each rectangle and roll into a cylinder; arrange in a buttered baking dish.
- 46 min
Make béchamel: melt 50g butter, whisk in 50g flour, then 500ml warm milk; cook until thick. Season.
Watch outCook the béchamel until it thickens enough to coat the spoon — a thin sauce runs off the cannelloni and the bake turns watery.
- 55 min
Pour the béchamel and 300ml tomato sauce over the cannelloni; top with 100g grated mozzarella.
- 65 min
Bake at 190 degrees C for 25 to 30 minutes until bubbling and golden; rest 5 minutes.
Watch outBake until the top is golden and the sauce bubbles at the edges, twenty-five to thirty minutes — that bubbling means the pasta underneath is heated through.
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