Cannelloni (Italian: large reeds) are rectangular pasta sheets that are rolled into a cylindrical shape encompassing a filling. After a pasta sheet has been boiled, it is typically filled with a savoury stuffing which may include ricotta cheese, spinach, and various meats. It is then covered with a sauce, typically a classic tomato or béchamel sauce. Cannelloni is often erroneously referred to as manicotti (Italian: sleeves), the latter being a pre-shaped tube that is then stuffed.

Today was pretty interesting! We were invited to The Boma at Hillside Dams to celebrate Chloe and Alan Forrest 51st wedding anniversary which is quite a feat with today’s disposable lifestyle. As I have said before it really is a great place to have a weekend meal and judging by the number of people there, it was a good choice.


Now the thing with Hillside Dams is that all the plates of food at some time more or less pass under your nose, so it’s easy to get an idea of what will whet the appetite For us it had to be the Cannelloni - golden grilled cheese toppings promising a mouth-watering feast underneath, until we dug our forks in to find that there was no pasta??


After a rather confusing few moments where we searched through the creamy vegetable mix hoping we had made a mistake, we realised that this was in fact a rather tasty vegetable bake that had mistakenly been mis-named.


One of my pet hates is when someone comes along to a restaurant, has a dreadful meal and then spends all year talking about it in the school car park, so I decided to have a `quiet' word with the Chef and tactfully suggest he rename the dish. I have to say in an understated way (it is Sunday evening after all and the stress can wait till Monday) that he didn’t appreciate my helpfulness and informed me in icy tones that CANNELLONI is a VEGETABLE dish !! I am not going to bore you with my reply but I seem to remember words like "cookbook, shove and nose" being amongst many others.


One good thing though was that the restaurant owner did phone me when I got home which was appreciated, but the next time I go there I am going to be a little wary of what might end up on my plate - there could be a lot of different interpretations of a Beef Salad !