Cannelloni Alla Rossini

Cannelloni alla Rossini: original recipe of a Pesaro dish, but now part of the Italian tradition; a first to taste! Cannelloni alla Rossini originated in the city of Pesaro. In fact, it was the famous composer Giocchino Rossini, a lover of good food and being at the table, who invented them. He once declared, "I know of no better occupation than eating, that is, than actually eating. Appetite is to the stomach what love is to the heart. The stomach is the conductor who conducts the great orchestra of our passions." It is also said that the composer, one evening, while sitting at a table in a restaurant in Venice, waiting for his plate of risotto, wrote Tancredi's aria "Di Tanti palpiti''. After the first staging – on February 6, 1813 – at the Teatro "La Fenice in Venice" the opera soon became the most famous "aria" throughout Europe and given the particular circumstances in which it was born, everyone nicknamed it "L'aria del riso".

Food and good music, therefore, were one in one's life. So much so that in the caricatures of the time the master and composer was often portrayed holding a pastry syringe intent on preparing his thousand gastronomic delicacies. Among his many gastronomic inventions, in addition to cannelloni alla Rossini – which were originally stuffed with foie gras and not as now with chicken livers – there are also risotto with ox marrow – still a renowned specialty of the Marche – the fillet alla Rossini or the stuffed turkey alla Rossini. In the years spent in Paris, he also became friends with two famous chefs of the time: Auguste Escoffier and Antonin Carême. Who at the time said: "He's the only one who really understood me". You can accompany the cannelloni alla Rossini with good quality red wine, such as: a Bardolino, or a merlot a noble wine of Montepulciano. These cannelloni are even better if left to rest a few minutes before serving them on the table. If they were to be leftover, moreover, you can safely store them in the refrigerator for a few days, or freeze them.

Ingredients for pasta

4 eggs 

400 grams of flour  

Salt For the filling 

100 grams of chicken livers 

80 grams of chicken

80 grams of veal

An onion

A celery stalk 

A carrot

40 grams of grated Parmesan cheese 

A teaspoon of nutmeg

A glass of Marsala

40 ml extra virgin olive

oil Salt

Pepper

Ingredients for the sauce

200 grams of tomato puree

40 grams of grated Parmesan cheese 

500 ml of béchamel sauce

Butter for the pan

Preparation

Wash the carrot and celery under cold water and then clean them.

Peel the onion. Chop all the vegetables and brown them in a large pan with a little extra virgin olive oil. Add the minced veal and chicken, cooking for a few minutes. Wet everything with the glass of marsala, salt and pepper, leaving the meat to cook over high heat, until the marsala has evaporated completely. Remember to occasionally mix the meat with a wooden spoon so as not to make it stick to the pan.

Turn off the heat and let the filling cool completely. Take a wooden pastry board and start kneading the flour with eggs and a pinch of salt. As soon as you have obtained a smooth dough without lumps, form a dough with your hands and start rolling it out with a rolling pin, until you get a thin sheet. With a sharp knife cut the dough sheet into 12 squares of the size of about 10 cm per side. Cook the pasta in a pot with plenty of boiling salted water. The squares must be cooked individually to prevent them from sticking to each other. As soon as the sheets come back to the surface take them with a slotted spoon, drain well from excess water and pass them under the jet of cold running water to stop cooking. Put the minced meat in a large bowl and add the grated Parmesan, nutmeg, eggs and a pinch of salt.

Mix everything carefully until the mixture is uniform. Take a handful of filling and distribute it on one side of each square of dough and then roll it up. Once all the cannelloni alla Rossini have been obtained, butter a large baking tray in which you will place the cannelloni alla Rossini next to each other. Cover them with tomato puree and then with a layer of béchamel sauce. Sprinkle with a generous handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese and bake at 180°C for about 30 minutes.