Manicotti Recipe
Vote for Manicotti!
Your nugget of nutritional information for this post:
This dish has so much good-for-you stuff, it's hard to focus on just one benefit it provides so I'll skip the obvious, and showcase pasta this go 'round. Yes, the much maligned noodle is front row center, kicking myth & taking names in its bid for gustatory redemption.
Just as a car needs gas to get its motor running, your body needs glucose to get its gear into fourth, and pasta provides that glucose in time release spurts. Sure, you can try to burn fat deposits instead, but that won't give you the ready, quality energy carbs will, nor will the calories assimilated from proteins. One caveat: it takes a while for your body to break down complex carbohydrates, so it's best ingested the night before the big event.
The Results!
The Ingredients:
Recipe in Rebus:
Cook Time assumes marinara sauce is ready
Ingredients:
4 cups marinara
15 oz. ricotta
2 egg - yolks only
8 oz. manicotti shells
1½ cups 4 cheese blend (Romano, asagio, provolone & mozzarella) alternatively: shredded mozzarella will do fine.
1 bunch fresh basil - chopped
Handful parmesan (optional)
How to Do It:
- Bring water to an easy boil in a kettle. Add a little salt and olive oil to the water, then add the shells. Keep an eye on them as you prepare the rest of the stuff since you don't want to cook them beyond al dente--about 10 minutes.
- Prepare the basil. remove stem and chop fine. Set aside.
- While the shells cook, prep the cheese filling for them. I assemble an easy mise en place as illustrated in the picture.
- Start with ricotta.
- Add the 4 cheese.
- Add beaten yolks. Blend all this together well.
- Add chopped basil. Blend well.
- Fill a pastry bag, leaving ample room to grip up top.
- Drain al dente manicotti shells. Pat dry and place on a clean surface well away from each other, so they don't stick together.
- Spray the bottom of your casserole dish lightly with no-stick cooking spray.
- Grab your marinara.
- Put a light layer of the sauce all over the bottom oof the casserole. If you used cooking spray, be extra careful not to mix that in as you spread out the sauce.
- Assemble a second mise en place for preparing the actual casserole.
- Snip end from pastry bag, and begin filling shells, placing shells side by side in casserole when filled.
- 10 shells seems to be the number that fit.
- Once assembled, spread remaining marinara sauce onto shells.
- Sprinkle lightly with 4 cheese.
- A little Parmesan too, if you like.
- Bake at 400 F for 25 - 30 minutes.
- Allow to rest for a few minutes, plate and serve!
add a green veggie, and buon appetito!
Comments
AUTHORThank you, My Cook Book!! And i am intrigued to see just what that means! I am popping over to rifle your recipes directly..hehe. :)
- AUTHOR
Eddy...now there's an awesome moniker! Thank you for saying, my dear. It sure spices up the job to have these to compose while at work, and now we need just one more component--to cook themselves! Then we'd really be in business!
Hope your week is as wonderful as you! :)
Mmm looks and sounds delicious Charron and I save into my ever expanding recipe book. Thank for sharing with easy to follow instructions too!! great hub and vote up.
Eddy.
A perfect mouth watering recipe. Pics are simply awesome. Thank you for sharing.
- AUTHOR
That pretty red sauce sure dresses it all up--and is a color that stimulates the appetite, BTWs--an interesting lil factoid. Thank you, Krafty Kid--for your kinds words...and kind actions! Your son must be very grateful, as must his furry friends. >^^
- AUTHOR
Thank you very much, Firdousia Sudheer! I think the pictures take the "mystery" out of it all, and help any cook know it doesn't always look great! There are steps to the finished pop, I mean...:) Hope you have a lovely weekend. :)
- AUTHOR
Hi Rose! Thank you for your appetite! As any Italian will tell you, that's the best compliment to bring to the table. I hope spring is hopping busy for you, wedding planner girl!
- AUTHOR
Thanks so much, Kathryn. Sometimes to hell with the veggies--and bring on the macaroni!! And yes the recipes for sauces tend to be so involved they simply must stand alone--else there'd be a ridiculous amount of white space as a reader scrolled all the way down through the what's and how muches of it all. This proved true on the Florentine recipe, and here as well.
I am all "in house"...:)
Omnom! I love it! I'm trying to cut down on pasta while I am on a little weight loss plan, but as soon as I accomplish my goal, I will splurge on this :) It will be one of my motivations. Thank you for sharing this.
I'm checking out your marinara recipe. I was thinking of trying my hand at making some, and I want to look it over again to see how much of what is needed. I love that you have this recipe, and use another of your recipes within it. Very clever, and useful to your readers.
Voted up and sharing.
See.........now you went and made me hungry, lol! Great recipe with excellent visuals. Thank you for sharing! (Voted Up) -Rose
well explained...beautiful recipe...voted up beautiful and useful...
When I see a recipe of you coming.... I am jumping to read it :-)
This looks so good again. I didn't had the chance to try your Marinara Recipe as my son is inviting us for dinner tonight for thanking us for taking care of his cats.... but I will try it for sure.
As I said, this new recipe is looking so good that I am drooling in front of my computer and my stomach is growling .... just embarrassing!
Thanks for sharing a great recipe again, Charron! I am looking forward to try all this!
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