This will be a bit difficult to relate because I have never measured anything for this recipe...but it always turns out ok.
Ingredients:
whatever pasta sauce you like
8 Manicotti shells (or you can use the giant sea-shell pasta)
one small tub Ricotta cheese
one 2 c. bag shredded parmesan
one 2c. bag shredded mozzarella
(optional: one 2c. bag shredded asiago....this one smells a bit like old socks, so some folks don't like it...but it's the 4th cheese if you want to go whole hog)
2 eggs
Minced Garlic - however much you like (I put in a LOT!!!, but one clove would probably do it)
Basil, Oregano, Parsley...whatever you have on hand, about a good tsp. of each, or none, whatever floats your boat.
Sometimes I add some crushed chile pequins...for a southwest zing
The secret ingredient here is...anything else you want to add. This is an easy recipe to modify. Want sausage? Ok, brown up some bulk sausage and add it to your cheese mix. Want a veggie dish? Toss in a little chopped spinach. Mushrooms are good too. I recommend trying the plain cheese first and then figuring out what else you'd like to add.
To start with....preheat oven to 425.
get a large pot of water boiling. When it's rolling, gently GENTLY put your shells in. They tend to break if you bounce 'em around too much.
While the shells are cooking, mix in a large bowl:
All the ricotta
most of the parm, mozz, and asiago. Save about a handful of each of the "dry" cheeses for topping.
Lightly beat the eggs and thoroughly stir them into the cheese mix. (You don't want eggy deposits in the finished product.)
Add your spices
Find your baking pan. I recommend the old standby, a 9X13 pyrex...
Spread a thin layer of pasta sauce on the bottom.
When the pasta is just barely al dente, pull it out of the pot and let it cool. In my experience, the best cooling place is a foil-lined cookie sheet that has been lightly sprayed with oil. When it's cool enough to handle, fill the pasta. There are myriad ways to do this. The gourmet way: use a pastry bag (or a gallon-size ziplock bag...cut a hole in a bottom corner) and squeeze the cheese mix into the shells. Or, (this is freakishly easy) slit the manicotti tubes all the way up one side so they lay out in a flat sheet. Then spoon some filling into the middle, roll it up burrito-style, and lay it seam-side down in your pan.
When the shells are filled, line them up in the pan. Top them with more sauce, then all that cheese you reserved earlier. Pop into the oven until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is golden-brown on top. This takes my oven somewhere around 30 minutes. Yours might be different. Just keep an eye on it. There's no real way to ruin this dish...except burning the bejeepers out of it.
enjoy - Sarah
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2 comments:
Since we're coming up on Halloween, you should add on the clever way to make them seasonal. Those bone Manicotti were awesome!
Good tip with slitting the shells; I've always assumed I would screw up the shells at the filling stage, so this would be a good way around it for me.
oh yeah...to make "baked bones" stick a large white mushroom in each end of a manicotti tube when you lay it in the pan. The sauce is "blood", the melted cheese is the "marrow" - you get it.
--shorthill
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