False Bay Rosè with Lasagna Senza Carne

Preparation Time: 60 minutes

Cooking Time: 60 minutes

Yield: 4

It’s hard to not believe in serendipity when the perfect wine for a dish you’ve just crafted lands on your doorstep.

In the very week that I created this recipe, a gift pack of False Bay wines from the nearby Waterkloof Estate arrived.

False Bay is Waterkloof’s entry level range, which consists of three whites, a rosè and two reds. They’re all affordable quaffers, at around R55 per bottle at the cellar door, and although they’re not made from grapes grown on the farm, cellar master Werner Engelbrecht affords their making the same attention as he does the Peacock Ridge, Circumstance, Circle of Life and Waterkloof wines. The Rosè turned out to be the perfect match with this dish, although we opened the Sauvignon Blanc to drink while cooking anyway! And so to the recipe….

The origin of the name of a dish is often the most fascinating thing to track down. Paella, that quintessential Spanish dish is one such. The name describes neither the dish itself, nor any one of its ingredients. Rather, it describes the pan in which the dish is prepared, and traditionally served. The paella is a large shallow pan with two handles, purpose designed for the preparation of the much loved Valencian dish.

Lasagna, my research reveals is also named after the utensil in which it was traditionally prepared. Legend has it that the Romans borrowed the Greek word “lasana” (trivet or stand for a pot) or “lasanon” (chamber pot) which became “lasanum” in Latin, and means cooking pot. And so over time, the utensil in which the dish was prepared became the name of the dish, which became lasagna in modern Italian.

De Wetshof Chardonnay d’Honneur and Cannelloni

Preparation Time: 60 minutes

Cooking Time: 90 minutes

Yield: 4

Cannelloni it seems means “large reed”, an apt description for the large pasta tubes with a savoury stuffing that carry the name, except that they are actually manicotti.

Cannelloni are made from a rectangle of cooked pasta, into which a savoury filling is rolled, then baked in either a tomato or béchamel sauce.

The closest one can come to real cannelloni without a pasta maker, is to use lasagne sheets in which to wrap your selected filling. Alternatively, one can buy what are called cannelloni tubes (but which are really manicotti!) and use them instead. They tend to be a bit finicky, because once cooked they are quite delicate, so I’d opt for the lasagne sheets instead, if you do not have a pasta maker.