Jamie Oliver’s Baked Cannelloni

To make the simple tomato sauce:

Tip 4 x 400g tins of plum tomatoes into a bowl, then break them up with your hands. Pour in 1 tin of cold water. Peel and finely slice 3 cloves of garlic and 1/2 a fresh red chilli (optional) then pick and roughly chop the leaves from 1 bunch of fresh basil. Put the garlic, chilli and 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil into a large pan over a high heat. Cook for 2 minutes, then add the tomatoes and basil leaves. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low. Cook for 30 minutes, or until thickened to a rich, silky sauce.

To make the Baked Cannelloni:

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6. To make the filling, finely chop the onion and sage leaves. Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat, add the onion and sage, and sweat for 10 minutes, or until softened, stirring often. Add all the mince and cook for 10 minutes, or until browned all over, stirring and breaking up the meat with the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat, season with salt and pepper, finely chop and stir in the salami, then leave to cool.

Meanwhile, spoon half the simple tomato sauce into a 25cm x 30cm ovenproof baking dish. Once the filling has cooled, add the ricotta, egg and breadcrumbs and finely grate in the Parmesan. Use your hands to scrunch it all together, then season. Transfer the mixture to a large piping bag, then squeeze the filling into each cannelloni tube, laying them flat in the dish as you go. Spoon over more tomato sauce – you want to cover the cannelloni without drowning them, so if you don’t need it all, use it another day.

Cover the dish tightly with tin foil and bake in the oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until golden and cooked through, removing the foil for the final 10 minutes. Once ready, add a good grating of Parmesan, return to the oven for 2 minutes to melt, then serve.