This recipe is a lighter version of regular cannelloni.
It’s really simple and instead of using pasta tubes, you make pancakes and fill them like a fajita before baking.
If you’ve not had savoury pancakes, hold on to your hat because you’re going to love this!
This is one of the many lean recipes that I’ve created where flavour and simplicity are key. There are hundreds of lean recipes in my app The Lean Cook with adjustable calories and macros.
Ingredients for 4 servings
| 300 g | extra lean beef mince |
| 600 g | chopped tomatoes, blended until smooth |
| 50 ml | water |
| 1 | garlic clove, chopped or crushed |
| pinch | sugar (pinch) |
| 150 g | plain flour |
| 2 | whole eggs |
| 300 ml | semi skimmed milk |
| 20 g | fresh basil leaves |
| 75 g | mozzarella, grated |
| 50 g | ham |
| 15 g | olive oil |
| spray oil | |
| salt and pepper |
Method
- Take a medium frying pan, put it on a medium heat and add the olive oil.
- Add the minced beef and brown it until it’s cooked through being sure to break up any large clumps of meat.
- Add the crushed garlic to the pan.
- Give the mixture a good stir and cook for about a minute.
- Pour in the blended tomatoes along with the pinch of sugar and the water.
- Bring the sauce to a rapid boil with a lid on as you don’t want to lose too much liquid volume and reduce it to a gentle simmer for 20-30 minutes minutes.
- When you’re happy with the thickness of the sauce, add the fresh basil and season the sauce to taste.
- Leave the sauce on a low simmer while you make your pancakes.
- Place the flour, eggs and milk into a large bowl and beat until smooth.
- Put a small frying pan onto a medium heat and add a few sprays of the oil.
- When warm add just 2 tablespoons of batter – the first pancake always is terrible so why waste too much batter!
- Discard this first pancake and add a little more spray oil to the pan and add enough batter for 1 pancake.
- Flip or carefully turn with a spatula when the first side is ready.
- Repeat until you’ve used all your batter.
- Preheat your oven to 190°C fan/400°F.
- Take an oven proof dish and spread a little sauce around the bottom of it.
- Place a pancake onto a chopping board, spread sauce around the pancake, add a piece of ham and a little of the grated mozzarella.
- Roll the pancake and place it folded edge down into the oven proof dish.
- Repeat until you’ve used all your pancakes and filled your oven proof dish.
- Spoon sauce across the centre of the pancakes and then sprinkle the top with the remaining mozzarella.
- Bake until the mozzarella is a lovely golden brown colour.
Recipe Notes
- Make sure your mince is extra lean, less than 5% of fat per 100g.
- Traditionally in Italian cooking you would use the smallest pinch of sugar to take any acidity out of tomatoes.
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