Antipasti Cannelloni

Antipasti Cannelloni

This is one of those recipes we keep coming back to when we want to genuinely impress someone without spending all evening in the kitchen. Antipasti cannelloni is everything we love about Italian food packed into one baking dish; silky cashew cream, tangy sun dried tomatoes, briny olives, capers and roasted peppers all stuffed inside pasta tubes and smothered in a rich passata sauce. The flavours are bold and punchy in the best possible way. Honestly, it tastes like something you'd order at a proper Italian restaurant, and we can't believe it's fully plant-based. Make this tonight. It will not disappoint.

Cook: 50 min
Serves 4

Before You Start

  • Preheat oven to 180°C
  • Large lasagne dish
  • Small saucepan
  • Colander
  • Food processor
  • Piping bag
  • Parchment paper & foil

Ingredients

  • 4 tbsp plant-based green pesto
  • 4 tbsp breadcrumbs
  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 200g cashews
  • 20g nutritional yeast
  • 1 handful of kale
  • Salt & pepper to taste
  • 16 cannelloni tubes
  • 1 tbsp capers
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 1 sprig of rosemary
  • 600g Passata
  • 300ml water
  • 4 artichokes - from a jar
  • 6 sun-dried tomatoes - from a jar
  • 2 red peppers - from a jar
  • 12 pitted olives - from a jar
  • 1 garlic clove
  • rocket
  • drizzle of balsamic vinegar
  • Juice of 1 lemon

Method

1

Prepare the cashews

  • Add the cashews to the small saucepan, cover with water and boil for 15 minutes to soften
2

As the cashews are simmering, make the sauce

  • Roughly chop the artichokes, garlic, sun dried tomatoes, red pepper, olives and capers
  • Place your pan on the stove, add the olive oil and warm over medium heat
  • Add the roughly chopped ingredients to the pan and stir for 2-3 minutes to warm through
  • Add the passata, water, sugar, sprig of rosemary, 2 wheels of lemon, salt and pepper to the pan
  • Simmer for 10 minutes stirring occasionally to prevent catching
3

Make the cannelloni filling

  • Add the kale to the pan of bubbling cashews and cook for 2 minutes
  • Drain the contents of the pan into a colander
  • Leave the cashews and kale to cool slightly before adding the contents of the colander to a food processor along with the nutritional yeast, pesto, breadcrumbs and a pinch of salt and pepper
  • Blitz the contents of the food processor into a completely smooth, thick cream
  • Transfer the contents of the food processor into a piping bag and carefully fill the cannelloni tubes
4

Prepare the dish and cook

  • Spoon half the sauce into the lasagne dish
  • Place the filled cannelloni in the dish in a uniformed fashion then cover with parchment paper and foil
  • Spoon the remaining sauce over the cannelloni
  • Place the dish in the oven and roast for 30-35 minutes until the pasta is cooked through
5

Time to serve 

  • Sprinkle nutritional yeast and a few basil leaves over the cannelloni
  • Use a spatula to transfer the cannelloni to plates
  • Dress with salad and serve immediately

Tips & Variations

  • Don't rush the cashews: We know it's tempting to skip ahead, but giving them the full 15 minutes of boiling time makes all the difference to how smooth and creamy the filling turns out. Trust us on this one.
  • Make it your own: Henry always adds a few extra olives on top before it goes in the oven because he's obsessed with them. A handful of fresh basil scattered over at the end works brilliantly too.
  • Filling the tubes: This can get a little messy, so we find it works really well to use a piping bag or even just a zip-lock bag with the corner snipped off. Makes the whole process so much easier and a lot less stressful.

Why This Works

The trick here is boiling the cashews first. It softens them up so they blend into this incredibly smooth, creamy filling that holds everything together beautifully inside the cannelloni tubes. And loading the sauce with all those antipasti ingredients (artichokes, olives, capers, the lot) means every mouthful has loads going on. It's that contrast between the creamy filling and the punchy, savoury sauce that makes this one really sing.