Chicken Crepe Cannoli – Part 1 – The Sauce

We were invited to an Italian themed potluck. I LOVE Italian food. All of it. There are so many wonderful recipes from which to choose. The hard part is narrowing it down to just one thing to bring, especially for a potluck. If I were the one hosting the party, I would make a huge array of fabulous foods. HMMMM! Do I make this or that, or both? Or something else completely? No, I can only bring one. What to make, what to make. These are very tough decisions to make. I had to put a great deal of thought into this.

I decided to make some some cannoli stuffed with chicken, but I made them from herbed crepes instead of from pasta. I did not get any pictures of the finished product once it was all cooked, because we literally took it out of the oven and off we went. However, I have plenty of pictures of the production process.

I started off by making a big pot of marinara sauce. I used about 10 lbs of beautifully delicious heirloom tomatoes that I diced. Aren’t those tomatoes gorgeous?

Then I added about 1/2 cup of olive oil, salt, pepper, herbs, and about 1 1/2 heaping TBSP of garlic. Just like the old Prego commercials used to say about all the flavors from home, “it’s in there”.

I brought it all to a boil on a high heat, then reduced the heat to a simmer and let it cook slowly, for about 2 hours so it thickened a bit and all the flavors could mesh together perfectly. I made sure to stir it every now and then too.

Often times, things with a tomato base taste better the next day, so after it was done I just put it in the fridge to set and brought it back out the next day, when I was ready to put everything together.

I am going to tease you all a bit, and leave it here for now. But have no fear, we will all see how it comes together next time. Stay tuned. Don’t touch that dial.