Best Cannelloni Beef (Manicotti) Recipe

This creamy cannelloni beef mince and tomato sauce still has us mesmerized and looking for it in the refrigerator for any leftovers! 

I am constantly talking about 'pasta is best served fresh' and this cannelloni recipe is NO different. However ... THESE leftovers bring a whole new meaning to the words the best leftovers!

Beef Cannelloni with Mascarpone Cheese and Bacon

So what exactly makes this Beef Cannelloni, The Best?

The meat is a combination of an aromatic beef mince and fried bacon, then we have a thick tomato sauce, a creamy mascarpone cheese filling and both parmesan and cheddar for that melting cheese on top. This beef cannelloni is your new favorite way of enjoying cannelloni😊

Cannelloni is very easy to make, but there's not just one way to make it. The one I am sharing with you today, is definitely the best we've ever tasted! Find the recipe in the recipe card below.

The images below are simply another way of making cannelloni which consist of thick cream and parmesan cheese with ground beef and tomato (bolognese sauce) and bacon. Topped with more cheese and baked till those much loved dark bits are scraped from the sides, SO GOOD!

What is Cannelloni?

Cannelloni is a delicious classic Italian dish made with large cylindrical pasta tubes filled with a savory mixture, typically baked in a rich tomato sauce and topped with cheese.

What's the difference between Manicotti and Cannelloni?

The manicotti tubes are larger or thicker and ridged and cannelloni tubes (both are 'tubes') have a smooth finish and are slightly thinner. The difference as you can see, is minuscule.

How to Fill a Cannelloni Pasta Tube?

There's the most basic method which is to use a spoon and scoop the filling into the tubes.  Then there's the efficient method of using a piping bag with a large round tip to fill the cannelloni or you can use a ziploc bag with a corner snipped off.

I use both of the above methods, but it also largely depends on the type of filling. Using a piping bag is mess-free and not as tedious🙂

See which of these methods works best for you. If you are using a spinach and ricotta filling, it's much easier to use a bag. Watch the video here for my spinach and ricotta cannelloni recipe.

Can Beef Cannelloni Be Made Ahead?

Yes, beef cannelloni can be made ahead of time! There are pros and cons to this but first here's how to make it ahead.

• Cook the meat filling (mince and bacon), assemble the cannelloni tubes with filling, and prepare your sauce. Arrange the filled cannelloni in a baking dish and pour the sauce over them. Do not bake yet and do not add any of the cheese. Tightly cover the baking dish with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and refrigerate for up to 24 hours. Follow the recipe to add the cheese and the rest of the method.
• My Pro Tip: Making all the components of the recipe seperate, cooling and refrigerating is much better than assembling the entire dish and refrigerating. 
• This is why: The texture of the dish is comprised when you layer day/s before, not much but still. I would rather (as suggested) cook the components seperately, store and then assemble when needed as per recipe card.

Dry Pasta Cannelloni Shells: Make it fresh and homemade or use store-bought. Fresh pasta will cook quicker, whereas dried pasta takes a little longer to cook.

Generally there are about 20 tubes per package (250grams) here in South Africa. I use a full box only if there's 4 or more people serving, for 2 of us, I use half the box, 10 tubes.

Just because there's half the packet of tubes being used doesn't mean you should half of the other ingredients because it's the reason it's SO DELICIOUS! See recipe card for quantities.

Do Dry Cannelloni Tubes Need to be Boiled?

No. The cannelloni will cook to a wonderfully tender texture without any pre-cooking.

TIP: Add a little passata to the onions to prevent them burning instead of additional oil.

How to Make Beef Cannelloni Pasta

These are the SIMPLE Steps to this recipe; Filling, Sauce, Cheese and Bake.

Cannelloni Meat Filling

The meat mixture is made with either beef and pork ground meat as I do with most of my pasta bakes, Homemade Lasagna and Italian Meatballs Pasta Bake. You can also use just beef mince, this is entirely up to you. I use a combination of what I have and it changes all the time.

In a large skillet (or large pan) cook the meat in olive oil on medium-high heat for a few minutes. Once it turns brown add the bacon. (I love using bacon in a (pasta recipe). Set the meat aside and cook the onions and garlic, use the same pan!

You may need to add a little more oil to start the onions off. I like adding a little tomato passata to the onions with a pinch of seasoning, this way you don't add an too much oil.

Cannelloni Sauce Ingredients

Tomatoes: Canned tomatoes and passata are both tomato products but they give you very different results and depending on what you prefer, use accordingly.

For a smoother, quicker cooking time and slighy sweet result, use passata. For a more thick consistency and more rugged texture, use canned tomatoes.

Marinara Sauce: Homemade or store-bought but cannelloni is very special dish and demands that extra time from us. Besides, canned tomatoes with seasoning and fresh herbs does not require much effort and tastes fresh and homemade.

The sauce requires 15 minutes on medium heat to cook down and thicken but first, add them to a food processor for a couple of seconds to break the tomato bits down.

I cook my tomato sauce with onion, at least one garlic clove or more, tomato purée, canned tomatoes to which I add a dash of cold water to the empty cans which go inside the sauce. 

The tomato sauce is always the fist layer in the baking dish which is then followed by the filled cannelloni tubes.

You can use plain tomato sauce (marinara) OR add about ⅓ of the tomato into the minced meat and then you have a Bolognese. In which case, the bolognese will be your first layer.

Cheese Layers

Mascarpone Cheese: This is what really took this recipe up to the BEST CANNELLONI! And the BACON! Add a little cream or milk to the mascarpone to thin it out a little. Easier to combine into the mince and bacon.

Combine: A ¼ cup of marinara sauce and about 2 spoons of mascarpone cheese, with a handful of parmesan cheese and mix them into the meat.

Filling: Stuff the cannelloni tubes with the meat filling. Add a layer of tomato sauce on the bottom of the baking dish. Place the stuffed tubes over and cover with the remaining tomato (marinara) sauce.

Cheese layers: Add the remaining mascarpone cheese and any leftover mince meat mixture followed by parmesan and cheddar cheese. Feel free to add roughly chopped fresh parsley in-between the layers.

Bake till golden brown and bubbling: All that's left is to bake the stuffed cannelloni in an ovenproof dish on 180°C/350°F (160°C fan) till heated through and bubbling.

There are no words to describe the taste, the images do not do sufficient justice!

What to Serve With Cannelloni

We normally eat this cannelloni recipe on it's own, because it's filling, however, a large green salad is always a good idea. Here are more serving ideas;

Very important to not carve immediately, let it simmer down for 10 to 15 minutes for the best cannelloni experience!

Freezing

Very easy to freeze, just remember to thaw before reheating. For a large frozen quantity, thaw overnight in the refrigerator (if possible) the next day remove it from the fridge while the oven is preheating. OR, preheat the oven 190°C/374°F (and 180 c fan) and bake from frozen! It will need more than 20 minutes if baked from frozen.

Variations

I have shared a few meat and sauce variations throughout the recipe, but here's a few more.

Bechamel sauce:  Make an easy white sauce (béchamel sauce) instead of using cream. Add cheese into the sauce to make it a cheese sauce or as known in the culinary world, a mornay sauce. Check my recipe out here. 

Cheese:  Swop the cheddar for mozzarella cheese.

Meat:  Use any, pork, chicken, turkey, beef. 

Herbs:  Instead of parsely, use fresh basil. 

Vegetables:  Wonderful vegetarian option with mushrooms, spinach and bell peppers. 

TIP:  Irrespective of which sauce you decide to use, make sure you have enough. Rather leftovers than running short or you run the risk of a dry cannelloni!

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