How Cannelloni Pasta Dishes Differ Across Italy

Cannelloni are pasta tubes stuffed with a filling and baked in a sauce. You can find this type of pasta in many regions of Italy, filled with a variety of meats, cheeses, and vegetables and topped with béchamel sauce, tomato sauce, meat sauce, or a combination of these. In Italy, cannelloni pasta dishes differ from place to place, depending on available ingredients and local culinary traditions. In Emilia-Romagna, for example, cannelloni are often filled with ragù alla Bolognese – a rich sauce of meat, vegetables, and mushrooms — and baked with béchamel and tomato sauce. 

But in Naples and on the Amalfi Coast, your cannelloni will probably be filled with mozzarella, ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, meat sauce, and chopped ham, and baked in a tomato sauce topped with additional cheese. Food historians also differ on which region gave birth to this classic Italian dish. Vincenzo Corrado's "Il Cuoco Galante" ("The Gallant Cook"), first published in Naples in 1773, includes a recipe for a stuffed pasta timballo, so we know that pasta stuffed with veal, Parmesan, and egg yolk and baked in a meat sauce was on the menu in Italy's Campania region at that time. 

However, Italian journalist Gaetano Afeltra wrote in his 1987 book, "Nascita dei cannelloni ad Amalfi" ("The Birth of Cannelloni in Amalfi") (via Dei Cappuccini Restaurant), that the chef at Hotel Cappuccini in Amalfi created cannelloni in 1924. Still others claim that cannelloni comes from the Emilia-Romagna region, which is known for its delicious stuffed pastas. And, as he wrote in a 2004 article published in The Professional Geographer, historical geographer David Alexander believes that cannelloni originated in Naples or Sicily, where large tubular pastas were common.

During the five years I lived in Italy, I discovered that cannelloni can vary from place to place, even within a particular Italian region. Local ingredients and specialties are at the heart of these recipe variations. For example, you're more likely to find seafood-stuffed cannelloni in coastal areas. But near the mountains, you might be served cannelloni filled with mushrooms and ricotta and baked in béchamel sauce. Meanwhile, cannelloni alla Fiorentina, which is stuffed with spinach, ricotta, and Parmesan and baked in tomato sauce, is found almost everywhere. Nevertheless, some regions of Italy are known for specific cannelloni pasta dishes. 

In the mountainous Abruzzo region, your cannelloni filling might include a pork, beef, and lamb combination mixed with eggs, Pecorino Romano cheese, and nutmeg. And in Rome and the surrounding Lazio region, you'll find cannelloni alla Romana, which is filled with a meat sauce featuring several kinds of meat and topped with still more meat in the sauce. Spinach is sometimes also added to the filling. Umbrian cannelloni pasta also features a meat sauce, but it's made with béchamel sauce instead of tomatoes. Beyond these regional cannelloni pasta dishes, it's also possible to find cannelloni made with an incredible array of ingredients, from cheese and lemon to vegan cashew cream and pumpkin. And in the United States, cannelloni made with dry egg pasta tubes is often called manicotti.