Creamy Ham & Leek Cannelloni

Wow, I was on a roll with British recipes in October! 🙂 I think I was probably just excited to try them out, and to try different products at the grocery stores in town. Seriously, shopping in a British grocery store was practically a scavenger hunt for me. A lot of things have slightly different names (especially with baking), and the aisles are arranged differently than what I was used to. That’s probably part of the reason why I only buy a few items off base now… it can be stressful hunting for items in an unfamiliar grocery store!

This Creamy Ham & Leek Cannelloni is very tasty, but I’m not sure what some of the American equivalents are. One of the ingredients is cheese sauce, and this is a white sauce found in the refrigerated section. I would say it is similar to an Alfredo sauce, but blander. So you may need to play around with that part, or just use Alfredo sauce.

Serves: 4
Takes: 40 minutes

15 g (1 T.) butter, plus extra for greasing (I just used cooking spray)
4 medium leeks, sliced
sprig thyme, leaves roughly chopped
150 g (5 oz) ham, cut into bite-size pieces (I got a pre-cooked ham, not sliced deli ham)
250 g (8 oz) ricotta
8 fresh lasagne sheets (I ended up having extra filling & used 12 sheets instead)*
350 g (12 oz) cheese sauce
handful grated cheddar cheese
green salad, to serve

1. Preheat the oven to 375F/190C. Heat the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the leeks and thyme, plus a splash of water, then cover and leave to cook gently for 10 minutes, until the leeks are soft.
2. Cool for a couple of minutes, then stir in the ham and ricotta.
3. Spread a heaped tablespoon of the mixture across the shorter end of each lasagne sheet, then roll up. Put in a large, greased baking dish so they fit snugly.
4. Stir 100 ml (3-1/2 oz) water into the cheese sauce then pour over the lasagne. Scatter with the grated cheese.
5. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until golden and bubbling. Serve with some green salad, if you like.

**This recipe has about 488 calories per serving**

*I wasn’t really paying attention, and I bought dry lasagne sheets, so I had to cook mine a bit first. I cooked them to just shy of al dente, I would say.