Se7en’s Cannelloni Beans And Tomato Sauce For Supper…

Last week I posted a quick meal,  Se7en Kebab’s – Supper on the Fly…, and I thought I would post another one of our super quick meals this week… Now I really mean super quick and super easy. This is a great end of the month meal and great for when a play date stays a bit long and you want to say – stay for supper!!! It is that easy!!!  Also it has beans and beans are great for low G.I. meals. We went out for dinner at friends a couple of weeks ago and they served this and I could have danced for joy as my kids quaffed this down. We have been eating it ever since!!! This is what you are aiming for:

Let’s Meet The Players:

• Some fresh baby spinach leaves.
• One packet of pasta with small noodles
• 1 can of canalloni beans
• 1 box of crushed tomatoes or you may be lucky to have a jar of fresh tomato ketchup in the fridge.
• A block of really hard parmisan.
• Some crushed garlic.

Let’s Play The Game:

Step 1: Prepare your spinach. Wash the leaves… we often have a couple of visitors when the spinach comes from the garden. Fold the leaves in half and remove the stems. Tear the leaves up slightly and the spinach is ready.

Step 2: Pop the garlic in the pan in a lug of olive oil to gently brown, add your tomato sauce, heat it up, and let it simmer away.

Step 3: Drain your beans and add them to your simmering tomato sauce.

Step 4: Grate your parmesan – and don’t be shy!!! I had an Italian lecturer once, she was actually a cookbook editor (how cool is that!!!), and she always “Don’t be stingy with those best ingredients, life is too short!” She was all about lashings of olive oil and mountains of parmesan!!!

Step 5: Cook your pasta according to directions. Start with salty boiling salty water – and according to my lecturer: “If the water isn’t salty then the pasta, she will taste like nothing!”

Step 6: Now this recipe is all about plating up… So let’s do it:

A small pile of spinach on the plate

Hot pasta on top – it wilts the spinach

Tomato and beans on top of that

Finally parmesan and salt and pepper

That’s it!!!

Step 7: If you don’t want to use a box or can of tomatoes then this is how we make ours:

• Fill a roasting pan with tomatoes – all shapes and sizes, chopped or not… add lashings of olive oil, garlic and sometimes our basil bush is co-operative!!!



• Roast the tomatoes in the oven until they start to go golden brown and the smell is so delicious you could die!!! take them out and let them cool.



• Pop them in the liquidizer fro a quick whizz…



• Jar it and you are done. I try and keep a jar of this in the fridge all the time – it is great for pizza toppings, spaghetti and meatballs, and with cannelloni beans of course!!!

And the Se7en + 1th Thing: Someone is going to ask if one packet of pasta and a can of beans and a box of tomato will feed all ten of us… yup … here’s the evidence (the shortest person still eats off my plate)…

With leftovers…

If we have guests then I get my resident chef to make a flat bread… and more guests I add a salad… and so on!!!

That’s really it!!! Have a fun day!!!