Spinach, ricotta and wet garlic cannelloni

I'd never come across wet garlic before - the veg box is full of surprises. You love going through it and seeing what we've got for the week (mainly to make sure there's some broccoli).

This makes enough for 4. You'll need:

a small tub of ricotta cheese
half a large bag of spinach, washed
an onion, finely chopped
a bulb of wet garlic, finely chopped (I was a bit overenthusiastic and used two, and we may not have been pleasant to meet for a couple of days...)
about 8 lasagne sheets (fresh or dried)
a tin of tomatoes
2 bay leaves
a splash of balsamic vinegar
a slug of olive oil
black pepper
grated cheese to go on top

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C.

First of all, get your tomato sauce going. You could mess about with shallots or onions etc, or you could just tip a tin of tomatoes into a frying pan with a good slug of olive oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar and a couple of bay leaves, and leave it to simmer down for 15 minutes while you get on with the cannelloni.

Fry the onion and garlic gently in a little olive oil, until it turns translucent. Add the spinach, and cook until it wilts. Take this mixture, and bung it in a food processor - give it a quick whizz until everything's chopped. Don't overdo it - you don't want a liquid.

Dump the ricotta cheese into a large bowl, break up with a spoon, and add the chopped-up onion/garlic/spinach mixture. Season to taste - you might need a little salt and a lot of black pepper.

Traditionally you'd stuff this into cannelloni tubes. But frankly life's too short to be faffing about with teaspoons or icing bags, no matter what Jamie et al tell you. Either use fresh lasagne sheets (a doddle), or dried (you'll need to par-boil them for 3 or 4 minutes until they're soft enough to roll up). Stick a line of filling in the middle of your lasagne sheet, roll it up, and sling it into an ovenproof dish.

Pour the tomato sauce over everything, top with some grated cheese, and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until everything's piping hot and the cheese is bubbling.

Cannelloni with squash, feta and tomato

You've spent most of the afternoon racing cars down the loop the loop track. We've discovered (a) the lighter they are the better and (b) when you hang the track off the door, they fairly zip down.

It was a bit of an experiment for tea. You hated it, and had a banana, followed by bread and marmite. At least you tried a couple of mouthfuls...

Makes enough for 4.

You'll need:

a squash, peeled, cored and chopped into small pieces
half a small(ish) pack of feta cheese (you could also try ricotta)
a tomato sauce or passata (I made my own from half an onion and a tin of tomatoes)
an onion, finely chopped
dried thyme, black pepper
grated cheese
cannelloni (or lasagne sheets)

First of all you'll need the oven on, at about 200 degrees C. Chuck your squash into a roasting tin, and splosh some olive oil over it. Bung in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the squash is tender. (Keep the oven on when the squash are done - you'll need it later on.)

In the meantime, make a tomato sauce (saute some onion in a frying pan until it softens, then add a tin of chopped tomatoes, some black pepper and a splash of balsamic vinegar, and leave to simmer for half an hour).

Fry the onion in a little olive oil, until it goes translucent. Put it into a blender with the feta cheese, some thyme and lots of black pepper. Once the squash is tender, take it out of the oven and stick it into the blender too. Smash the lot together, until it forms a thick paste.

You then have the delightful task of filling the cannelloni, which is a right pain. There's probably a technique to it - Jamie Oliver does it by cutting off the corner of a bag, and squashing the stuff in, or an icing bag would also be a good plan. I shoved it in with a small teaspoon, which was a bit messy. If you hate the idea of all this, you could just sandwich the squash mixture between some layers of lasagne.

Once your cannelloni are filled, place them in a roasting dish (the one you did the squash in would be a good move), and pour the tomato sauce over the top. Liberally sprinkle your grated cheese over the top, and bake in the oven for 40 minutes or so, until everything is bubbling furiously and the cheese on the top is golden.