Recipes

Green crepe cannelloni with burrata and ricotta stuffing

Feb 13, 2015

Cannelloni di scrippelle verdi al forno ripieni di burrata e ricotta

Scrippelle are very similar to French crepes. The story on their origin is fascinating. “Le crespelle n’busse” are a traditional dish of Teramo, one of the Abruzzese provinces. The dish is supposed to have been accidentaly created by a chef preparing a meal for the French army stationed in Teramo in the 18th century. Mr Castorani, the chef, dropped a whole tray of crepes in a pot of chicken broth and served it to the guests, who loved it. They have since been used in this traditional soup as well as a substitute for pasta sheets for making cannelloni and lasagna. I have used my interpretation of green scrippelle for this version of delicious cannelloni.   

Ingredients for 4 people

For the scrippelle (crepes)
4 eggs
8 tbs of “00” flour
250 ml of parsley infused water
Half a bunch of parsley
1 tbs of extra virgin olive oil
A pinch of salt
For the filling
1 Burrata
250 gr of fresh ricotta
100 gr of freshly grated Italian Parmesan cheese
Salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil
For the sauce
500 gr ripe vine ripened tomatoes – 1 and half per person
1 fresh white onion or 1 large shallot
1 tbs of extra virgin olive oil
A few dollops of unsalted butter
 
To make the scrippelle (crepes)
Blanch the parsley in hot boiling water for one minute; drain and refresh in iced water.
Drain, reserve the cold water and whiz with a stick blender with 300 ml of the reserved water for a few minutes, pass through a sieve and allow to rest for an hour. Pour 250 ml of the dark green infused water in a jug.
Whisk the eggs with a pinch of salt in a glass bowl, add the flour and the olive oil and continue to whisk until the flour has amalgamated with the eggs and there are no lumps. Pour the parsley infused water into the mixture and blend. Rest the mixture for one hour.
Butter and warm a 20cm crepe pan. Make each crepe with about 30 ml of the crepe mixture. Cook each crepe until the mixture start to lift from the pan (about one minute) turn the crepe, cook another minute and transfer to a plate lined with kitchen paper.
This quantity will make about 9 to 10 crepes.
To make the filling
Chop the burrata and mix in a bowl together with the ricotta and 50 gr of grated Parmesan cheese, add salt and pepper to taste and a drop of extra virgin olive oil, mix all the ingredients together in the bowl until you have a smooth but consistent cream.
Lay each crepe on a working surface and spread some of the cream across the centre of each crepe, roll each crepe like a cigar, making sure they are securely folded.
Warm the oven to 230° and line an oven tray with baking paper, lay the crepes on the oven tray, sprinkle with some Parmesan cheese and a few tiny dollops of butter.
To make the sauce.
Blanch the tomatoes, for a few minutes, refresh in cold water and remove their skin, halve each tomato and remove any white core. Finely chop the fresh onion. Warm the extra virgin olive oil in a frypan and gently sauté the onions, when the onion change colour add the tomatoes cut side down and cook for about 10/15 minutes turning them very gently so as not to destroy their shape. Keep the tomatoes warm until ready to serve.
To assemble each plate
Bake the crepes in the oven for 5 minutes. Allow the crepes to cool a little so that you are able to handle them, cut each crepe into halves and trim so as to achieve two cannelloni shapes from each.
On each plate serve one piece of cannelloni with half a tomato between each piece of crepe, drizzle a little of the tomato sauce on each plate and serve immediately.

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