Cannelloni with Asparagus and Ham – a delicious recipe with asparagus, butter, water, Salt, ham, milk. Easy to follow and perfect for any occasion.
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Trim 1 inch or more off the butt ends of the asparagus, leaving only the moist, tender part of the stalk.
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Pare away the tough green skin from the base of the spear to the end of the stalk.
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Remove any tiny leaves sprouting below the base of the tip.
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Cut the trimmed asparagus into 2-inch lengths and wash in cold water.
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Choose a lidded, shallow pan large enough to accommodate all the asparagus.
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Put in 4 tablespoons of the butter, the water, a little salt, and the asparagus.
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Cover and turn on the heat to medium.
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Cook until the asparagus is tender, but firm.
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If, when the asparagus is done, there is still liquid in the pan, uncover, raise the heat to high, and boil away the liquid while browning the asparagus lightly.
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Cut up the ham and chop it in a food processor, but take care not to chop it too fine.
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Add the asparagus to the processor bowl and run the processor very briefly once or twice.
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The asparagus should be cut up into small pieces, but not blended to a creamy consistency.
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Make the bechamel: Heat the milk over low heat until it forms a ring of pearly bubbles, but do not let it break into a boil.
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While the milk is being heated, melt the butter in a separate pan over low heat.
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When the butter melts, add the flour, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.
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When the flour has been wholly amalgamated with the butter, but before it becomes colored, remove from the heat.
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Add 2 tablespoons of milk at a time to the flour and butter mixture, stirring steadily and thoroughly.
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Add 2 more tablespoons of milk when the first 2 have been incorporated smoothly and evenly into the butter and flour.
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Stir and repeat the operation until you have put in 8 tablespoons of milk.
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At this point you can add the milk 1/2 cup at a time, always stirring steadily to obtain a homogeneous mixture.
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When all the milk has been worked in, place the pan over low heat, add the pinch of salt, and stir without interruption until the bechamel is as dense as a thick cream.
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Put the chopped asparagus and ham in a bowl, add half the bechamel, 2/3 cup of the grated cheese, and the nutmeg.
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Mix well.
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Knead the dough for the pasta and thin it out, stopping at the next to last setting on the machine, as described below.
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Cut the pasta strips into 5- to 6-inch-long rectangles, leaving them as wide as they come from the machine.
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Parboil them, rinse them, and spread on dry cloth towels.
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Turn on the oven to 450.
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Choose a baking pan large enough (about to by 12 inches) to contain all the cannelloni snugly in a single layer.
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Smear the bottom generously with butter.
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Spread 1 tablespoon of bechamel on a plate.
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Place a rectangle of pasta over the bechamel, rotating it lightly so that its underside becomes coated.
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Over the pastas top side spread about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the asparagus mixture, thinning it evenly, but stopping just short of the edge of the pasta.
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Roll up the pasta softly, jelly-roll fashion, to form a cannellone.
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Place the cannellone in the pan, with the overlapping edge facing down.
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Repeat the operation, laying the cannelloni snugly side to side, until all the cannelloni are done.
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From time to time, smear more bechamel over the bottom of the plate, as necessary, but take care not to use up all the bechamel.
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When all the cannelloni are in the pan, spread the remaining bechamel over them, forcing some of the sauce into the spaces between the cannelloni.
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Sprinkle with the remaining 1/3 cup of grated cheese and dot with the leftover 2 tablespoons of butter.
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Place the pan in the uppermost level of the preheated oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until a golden brown crust forms on top.
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Allow to settle for 5 to 8 minutes before serving.
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To serve, do not cut into the cannelloni, but loosen them, one from the other, with a spatula.
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Making Pasta at Home by Machine
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THE FLOUR
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As Elizabeth David has demonstrated magnificently, one can write a volume about varieties of flour.
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When we focus on Italian cooking, however, and specifically on pasta, we limit our field to two basic kinds: soft-wheat, unbleached, all-purpose flour and durum or hard-wheat flour, also known as semolina or, in Italian, semola.
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The first is white, the second pale yellow.
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Each of the two varieties has its virtues and drawbacks.
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For the classic pasta of Bologna, stretched by hand with a rolling pin, only soft-wheat flour is used.
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It is lower in gluten than semolina, hence it is easier to hand stretch.
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Soft wheat has a gentler, warmer fragrance than that of semolinas, which is faintly sharp.
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The sweet-smelling pasta it produces is plumper in body and of a fluffier consistency than any made with durum wheat flour.
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On the other hand, it requires utmost heedfulness in the cooking, because it can quickly pass that dangerous line from firm to overdone.
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Semolina has so much tough gluten that it is next to impossible to stretch by hand in the Bolognese manner.
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It is more suitable for flat pasta compressed by a non-extruding home machine or for such industrially extruded shapes as spaghetti or fusilli.
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Pasta made with semolina flour is never as downy as the soft-wheat kind, but it makes up for it with a body tautly knit and admirably compact.
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It accepts an extraordinary variety of sauces and cooks to a perfect al dente, firm-to-the-bite consistency.
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When buying semolina one must look out for flour that is ground too coarse.
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Unfortunately much of it is, including some brands that are sold as pasta flour.
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It should be talcum soft to the touch and impalpable, like other flour; otherwise it will be difficult to work with.
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At home I use semolina when I want extra firmness, such as in tonnarelli.
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More frequently I use all-purpose, unbleached flour, which makes pasta closer to that made at home in Bologna.
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The choice, however, depends on ones preferences.
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Both flours make equally valid pasta.
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THE DOUGH
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INGREDIENTS.
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The dough for homemade pasta consists of flour and eggs, nothing else.
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The only exception is when spinach or Swiss chard leaves are added to the basic egg and flour dough to make green pasta.
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Olive oil, salt, colorings, seasonings have no gastronomic reason for being in pasta.
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Some, such as olive oil that makes pasta slicker, are wholly undesirable and a detriment to good pasta.
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If one respects the freshness and immediacy of the Italian approach to cooking, one puts all flavors and seasonings in the sauce.
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PROPORTIONS.
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Use 1 cup of flour with 2 large eggs to produce approximately 3/4 pound of pasta.
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The exact ratio, however, will vary depending on the size of the eggs, their flour absorption capacity, even on the humidity of the environment.
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COMBINING THE EGGS AND FLOUR.
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Since you can never tell in advance exactly how much flour you will need, do not mix the flour and eggs in a bowl.
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You may find you want to use less flour than you thought.
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Pour the flour onto a work surface, shape it into a mound, scooping out a deep hollow in its center.
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Break the eggs into the hollow.
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Beat the eggs lightly with a fork as though you were making an omelet.
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Draw some of the flour over the eggs, mixing it, a little at a time, until the eggs are no longer runny.
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Draw the sides of the mound together, pushing to one side any flour you think you may not use.
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Work the mixture of flour and eggs with your fingers and the palms of your hands until it is well amalgamated.
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If it is still too moist, work in more flour as needed.
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Put the egg and flour mass to one side and scrape the work surface clean of all loose or caked bits of flour and of any crumbs of dough.
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Wash your hands and dry them.
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You are now ready to knead.
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MAKING SPINACH DOUGH.
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For approximately 1 pound of green pasta, use 2 large eggs, approximately 1 1/2 cups flour, and either 1/2 pound fresh spinach or half a 10-ounce package frozen leaf spinach.
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If using fresh spinach, trim away all the stems and wash the leaves in several changes of cold water to remove every trace of soil.
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Cook it in a covered pan over medium heat with only the water that clings to the leaves and with 1/4 teaspoon of salt to keep its color bright.
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Cook until tender, 15 minutes or more, drain, and let cool.
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If using frozen leaf spinach, cook it in a covered pan with 1/4 teaspoon of salt until tender.
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Drain and let cool.
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Squeeze all the liquid out of the cooked spinach with your hands, then chop it very fine.
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Follow the directions given for combining eggs and flour; beat the chopped spinach into the eggs in the well of flour before drawing any flour over them.
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KNEADING THE DOUGH.
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Kneading dough may be the single most important step in making good pasta.
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It is best done by hand, which takes no more, and possibly less, time and effort than with a machine, if you include the work required to clean the machine.
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Return to the egg and flour mass you had set aside.
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Push against it with the heel of your palm, keeping your fingers bent, fold it in half, give it a half turn, press hard again, and proceed thus for at least 8 minutes, pressing, folding, turning.
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If you are not sure that you have put in enough flour, push a finger into the dough as far as its center.
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It should come out clean and dry.
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If it is moist or there are bits of dough stuck to the finger, work in what additional flour you judge the dough needs.
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Unless you are ready to run the dough through the machine immediately, wrap it airtight in plastic wrap.
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Do not refrigerate it, but be ready to proceed with making the pasta within 2 or 3 hours at most.
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THE MACHINE
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THE TWO ADMISSIBLE KINDS.
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The basic pasta machine has paired steel rollers of two types: one is smooth and serves to compress and thin out the dough; the second set has parallel grooves that can cut the flattened dough into ribbons.
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Of this last set there are always two different pairs, a broad-grooved one that produces fettuccine and a narrower one that makes tagliolini.
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A movable handle can be inserted into different positions depending which of the rollers is to be turned.
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Less common now than it was before the introduction of the wretched extruding machines is the electric machine made by Bialetti.
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It works on the same principle as the hand-cranked version, over which it has two major advantages: the rollers are of plastic material with a gritty surface that makes pasta with a livelier texture and better sauce-absorbing qualities; it is electrically driven and faster so that it is both easier to use and kinder to the dough, which wants to be worked as rapidly as possible.
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No other kinds of machines than these two are suitable for making pasta at home.
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Those who already own a hand-operated machine can now buy an ingenious little motor that replaces the crank, converting any hand-turned machine into an electrically driven one.
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ROLLING OUT THE DOUGH WITH THE MACHINE.
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Flattening a ball of dough into a thin sheet is the pasta machines primary function.
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To perform it, it has several settings that bring the thinning rollers gradually closer together.
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Thinning the dough can be compared to reaching the sidewalk from a buildings sixth story.
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The fastest way is to jump, but you will be a mass of shattered bones.
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One of the reasons that pasta made by shops is generally so mediocre is that the dough is flattened all at one time, rather than step by step: its body is smashed, its vital sinew broken, it is inert.
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Walking down the steps is one safe way: it corresponds to the heedful use of the machines graduated thinning notches.
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Even less jarring would be to take the elevator: in making pasta, that would be the hand-stretched method.
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If you are thinning a ball of dough made with 2 eggs, divide it into 4 equal parts, or proportionally more parts if it is a larger amount.
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Cover the counter beside the machine with clean, dry, cloth kitchen towels.
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Set the thinning rollers at their maximum opening.
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Flatten 1 of the pieces of dough with your open hand and run it through the machine.
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Fold it in thirds, give it a quarter turn, and pass it through the machine again.
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Repeat the operation 2 or 3 times, then lay the flattened pasta strip on the towels.
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Take another piece of dough and flatten it as described above.
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Lay it next to the previously flattened strip on the towel, but do not let them overlap or touch.
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When all the dough has been flattened you can begin to thin it progressively.
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Close the opening of the rollers one notch and run the first of the flattened strips through it once.
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Do not fold it, but lay it flat on the towel.
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Repeat the procedure with all the other flattened pasta strips.
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When all are done, close the opening down another notch and thin all the strips again as has just been described.
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Continue thinning the pasta one notch at a time until it reaches the desired thinness.
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(Note: If you are making stuffed pasta, and you work slowly, take each piece of dough all the way through the thinning process, stuff it, then do the next piece.
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Keep the dough waiting to be thinned wrapped in plastic wrap.)
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CUTTING THE PASTA.
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If you are making lasagne, cannelloni, and any stuffed pasta, use the pasta immediately, as described in the appropriate recipe.
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For any pasta that encloses a stuffing, such as tortelli, tortellini, raviolini, the pasta must be cut and stuffed as soon as it is made, while it is still soft and sticky.
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Its softness makes it easier to shape and the stickiness is necessary to produce a tight seal, preventing the stuffing from spilling out during the cooking.
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For any kind of noodle, however, allow the strips to dry on the towels for 10 minutes or more, depending on the temperature and air circulation of your kitchen.
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Turn the strips over from time to time.
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The pasta is ready when it is still soft and pliant enough that it wont crack when cut, but not so moist that the noodles will stick to each other.
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Use the broad cutters on the machine to make fettuccine, and the narrower ones to make tagliolini.
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Tagliatelle, the classic Bolognese noodle, is slightly broader than fettuccine.
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If you are set on duplicating the Bolognese model, the pasta strips must be rolled up loosely and cut by hand into 1/4-inch-wide ribbons.
* Per serving · 4 servings · Values may vary.
No additional tips available.
No specific allergen information. Please check the ingredient list for possible allergens.
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Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe makes 4 servings. You can adjust the portion size directly on this page.
You need 13 ingredients. The key ingredients include: 2 pounds asparagus, 6 tablespoons butter, 1 cup water, Salt, and more.
Yes, Cannelloni with Asparagus and Ham falls under the Vegetarian category and is a great choice for this type of meal.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3–4 days. Reheat gently before serving.