Spinach Pancakes with cream cheese, ham and a roasted pepper and tomato sauce

I love pancakes but don't make them that often as the boys are not fans (yes, strange as most children love them!). I love eating them with sweet fillings, but I also like using them to make a main meal in place of pasta or wraps. Last week I was wondering what to make for dinner and was looking through my fridge and cupboards to see what I had and what needed using up. 

With the ingredients I found I decided to make a kind of pancake style spinach and ricotta cannelloni but with ham (obviously omit this if you are vegetarian) and instead of ricotta I had cream cheese, and rather than add the spinach to the pancakes once made, I thought I would incorporate the vegetable into the actual batter mix. It was a success and tasted really nice and here is how I made it.

Makes 6- 8 pancakes

for the pancakes

1 1/2 cups of flour

1 cup of milk

1 egg

1/2 bag of spinach

black pepper (to taste)

pinch of salt

pinch of nutmeg

oil for cooking

for the sauce

2 red peppers

1 onion

garlic

basil

olive oil

tin of tomatoes (drain off the liquid)

pinch of sugar

for the filling

small tub of cream cheese (or use ricotta)

ham/bacon - optional

25g grated cheese

black pepper to taste

25g grated cheese to garnish

Method

To make the pancakes

Place all the ingredients into a blender and whizz until smooth

make your pancakes as you would normally, and allow to cool

To make the sauce

pre-heat the oven to 190oC/170oC (fan)

roughly chop the peppers and onion and place into a baking tray

add a couple of cloves of garlic and 2tbsp of olive oil and some basil, mix and place into an oven

cook for about 20-25 minutes

once cooked, put in tom your clean blender with your drained tomatoes and the sugar and whizz to blend all together

To assemble your dish

turn the oven down to 180oC / 160oC (fan)

lay each pancake out and divide the cream cheese, cheese and meat (if using) mixture among your pancakes

roll each pancake up and place into a lightly greased oven proof dish

pour over your sauce and top with the grated cheese

bake for about 25-30 minutes until the cheese is golden brown

serve with garlic or crusty bread and a salad garnish

It really tastes nice and the use of pancakes in place of pasta is a real change. By adding spinach to the pancake batter is a clever way of getting spinach haters (like my OH and children) to eat it without really realising!!