Make the tomato sauce following any one of the recipes provided in our "Tomato Sauce 101" post. Personally, I prefer the marinara. Make sure your sauce is well seasoned and don't skimp on the olive oil—a rich sauce will ensure a moist, velvety dish.

While the tomato sauce is simmering, prepare the stuffing: Rinse the spinach well and drain it, but not too well. Place the spinach in a covered pan and cook it briefly, using just the water that clings to it, just until it wilts. Then drain the spinach, rinse it again, and squeeze out as much water as you can. Mince the spinach finely. Mix the spinach and all the other stuffing ingredients together in a large bowl until they are well blended and set aside. (If making the filling ahead, cover with plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge.)

Make a batch of fresh egg pasta following our master recipe. Roll the pasta out very thin—I use the "5" setting on a pasta machine—and cut the pasta into 10-12cm/4-5 inch squares. (Unlike other fresh pasta shapes, there is no need to let the pasta dry before you cut it.)

Now proceed the parboil the pasta squares for just 15-30 seconds or so. Remove the pasta from the boiling water with a slotted spoon, immediately cool it off in a bowl of tepid water and then transfer the square to a towel and pat dry. Continue this way with all the squares.

As soon as all the squares have been parboiled, proceed to fill them. There are two ways you can do this. The more common way is to take 2-3 spoonfuls of filling and line it up along one side of the square, then roll the pasta around it. A less common method, but one I like better, is to spread the same amount of filling all over the square, leaving a 'lip' of say, 2-3cm/1 inch at one end, then roll the square up, starting at the end opposite the lip. This is nice, in my opinion because all of the pasta is in contact with the filling.

Once you've filled and rolled all your cannelloni, spread a bit of tomato sauce in the bottom of a baking dish large enough to hold all of them. Now arrange the cannelloni in the dish. Cover with some more tomato sauce—not too much, but enough to cover them completely‚ making sure there is sauce between them and around the sides. Sprinkle with a generous amount of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Bake the cannelloni in a 200C/400F oven for about 20-30 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbling gently and the cannelloni have slightly browned on top. Take the cannelloni out of the oven and let them rest for 15 minutes or so before serving.

Serve with additional tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese for those who want some.