Ground meat cannelloni: homemade recipe and béchamel sauce
Ground meat cannelloni is prepared in three steps: a filling of ground beef sautéed with onion, carrot and tomato, tubes filled with a piping bag or spoon, then baked for 35 to 40 minutes at 180 °C, between a layer of tomato sauce and béchamel. The golden rule: the pasta must be completely covered with sauce, otherwise it remains hard.
Here is the homemade recipe for 4 people, the choice of meat and grind, the technique for filling the tubes without breaking them and the mistakes that make cannelloni dry. The dish can be prepared in advance and freezes very well. For a fine filling that slides easily into the tubes, mince the meat with the fine grid of one of our meat grinders.
Ground meat cannelloni recipe
Here is the ground meat cannelloni recipe for four people. You will first find the ingredients, including the béchamel, then the detailed steps, from the filling to baking.
Ingredients for 4 people
- 16 dry cannelloni tubes, "no pre-cooking" type
- 400 g of ground beef with 15% fat
- 1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 clove of garlic
- 600 g of tomato pulp or coulis
- 1 egg and 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley or basil
- For the béchamel: 40 g of butter, 40 g of flour, 60 cl of milk, salt, pepper, nutmeg
- 80 g of grated cheese
- Olive oil, salt, pepper
Steps
- Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Finely chop the onion, carrot and garlic, then sauté for 5 minutes in a drizzle of oil.
- Add the meat, break it up and let it lose its red color. Pour in 200 g of tomato, season with salt and pepper and let reduce for 10 minutes over low heat: the filling must be thick.
- Remove from the heat, let cool slightly, then mix in the egg and herbs.
- Prepare the béchamel: melt the butter, add the flour, stir for 1 minute, then pour in the cold milk while whisking until thickened. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
- Spread half of the remaining tomato at the bottom of a dish. Fill the cannelloni and arrange them side by side.
- Cover with the rest of the tomato, then with the béchamel, without leaving a single pasta exposed. Sprinkle with grated cheese.
- Bake for 20 minutes covered with a sheet of aluminum foil, then 15 to 20 minutes uncovered to brown.
The cannelloni are cooked when the tip of a knife passes through a pasta without resistance. The filling follows the same logic as a simmered meat sauce, reduced so it does not run: for a longer and more tender version, start with our homemade bolognese.
The filling: which meat and grind to choose
The filling must remain moist after 40 minutes in the oven, while being fine enough to slide into a tube with a diameter of 2 cm.
| Choice | Texture obtained | To know |
|---|---|---|
| Ground beef with 15% fat | Moist, well bound | The classic compromise, little fat in the dish |
| Ground beef with 5% fat | Drier after cooking | Compensate with 2 tablespoons of béchamel in the filling |
| Beef and veal mix | More tender, mild taste | Appreciated by children |
| Fine 3 mm grid | Homogeneous filling | Ideal for filling with a piping bag |
| Medium 5 mm grid | More bite | Fill rather with a small spoon |
Mincing a piece of chuck or top round yourself, just before preparation, gives a filling that releases less water and retains its flavor. To choose a device supplied with these grids, see our electric meat grinder collection.
Filling the cannelloni without breaking them
Filling the tubes without splitting them requires a little method. Here are two ways to fill the cannelloni, then the points to follow for the filling, the pasta and the arrangement in the dish.
- The piping bag: the fastest method. A wide nozzle or a cut corner of a freezer bag is enough. Hold the tube vertically and fill it to both ends.
- The small spoon: slower, but suitable for a medium-grain filling. Push the filling with the handle to make it go down.
- A lukewarm filling: cold, it becomes compact and difficult to push; hot, it makes the egg stick too early.
- No pre-cooking: dry tubes are filled without splitting, while pre-cooked pasta tears under pressure.
Arrange the tubes tightly against each other, in a single layer: they hold each other and cook evenly. For a piping bag filling, fine grain matters: if you prefer to mince without electricity, a model from the manual meat grinder collection gives the same grain for a family dish.
The mistakes that make cannelloni hard or dry
Two mistakes explain almost all failed cannelloni:
- Pasta poorly covered with sauce: a dry cannelloni cooks thanks to the liquid surrounding it. An end protruding from the béchamel remains cardboard-like and browns. Allow enough sauce to cover everything, even if you have to thin the béchamel with 10 cl of milk.
- A filling that is too liquid or too dry: too liquid, it escapes the tubes and makes the dish soggy. Too dry, it turns into a hard meatball in the center.
Reducing for 10 minutes with a little tomato, then the egg to bind, solves both problems. The same balance applies to our ground meat lasagna, also layered between tomato and béchamel.
Can you prepare the cannelloni the day before?
Yes, it is even practical for a family meal. Assemble the dish, cover it and keep it in the refrigerator until the next day. Then add 10 minutes of cooking, because the dish goes in cold, and check that the sauce still covers the pasta well.
Can you freeze ground meat cannelloni?
Yes, cooked or raw, in an airtight dish, for about 3 months. Defrost them in the refrigerator the day before, then reheat them for 25 minutes at 170 °C under aluminum foil. Remove the aluminum in the last few minutes to get a well-browned top.
Melting cannelloni from the first to the last tube
Remember the essentials: a 15% beef filling reduced then bound with egg, tubes filled without pre-cooking and completely covered with sauce, 20 minutes under aluminum then 15 to 20 minutes uncovered. Mince the meat yourself if you can: the filling releases less water and retains its flavor after 40 minutes in the oven. For another gratin version of the same pasta and meat duo, see our ground meat pasta gratin.
All our grinders for preparing your homemade fillings are gathered on Hachoir Cuisine.