Delicious Baked Manicotti

 

So, besides my post yesterday I know it's been awhile since you've seen me post anything on here! It's not because we've taken a hiatus from eating or cooking, it's just that as soon as the weather here in OK started to get more "Spring" like, I can't keep myself inside or sitting still! As someone who has spent her entire life loving the outdoors, I think it's SO important to put down the iPad, tablet, computer or whatever it is that keeps you inside and go outside and take some time to stop and smell the roses! 

 outdoormindedmag.com

We've been fishing, hiking and cooking out with friends and family already this Spring, and there will be much more of all that as the season for outdoor living has just begun! Today is yucky, so I'm taking this downtime to put up a new recipe! I grabbed this recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe, and she has so many good recipes on there it's hard to chose where to start! Let's get started with this one!

Ingredients

Tomato Sauce

 

1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes (in juice)
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 medium cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons dried basil 

Cheese Filling and Pasta:

3 cups part-skim ricotta cheese
4 ounces grated Parmesan cheese

8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
2 large eggs , lightly beaten
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves (or 2 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley)
2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil (or 1 teaspoon dried basil)
16 no-boil lasagna noodles

 

Make sure you have a rack in the middle of your oven and pre-heat it to 375 degrees. 

 

In a large saucepan heat the oil, pepper flakes and garlic over medium/high heat! You are wanting this to get fragrant, not so much brown! It should take about a minute or two to get that first wonderful whiff of deliciousness! Now throw in your tomatoes, salt and dried basil and allow to simmer for about 15 minutes or until sauce has thickened (not too thick just slightly). 

 

 

 

In a medium sized bowl stir together the ricotta, mozzarella cheese, 1 cup of the Parmesan cheese (1/2 of what the recipe calls for), eggs, salt, pepper, and herbs! Set this mixture to the side.

 

 

 

Now for the assembly!! n a 9x13 pan, pour about one inch of boiling water into the pan. Add your noodles one at a time, making sure they don't all stick together! Let them soak for about 5 minutes or until you can "roll them" without them breaking! You don't want them to be completely cooked through because then they will break on you! 

 

 

Lay your noodles out on a paper towel or dish towel to dry off and discard the water in the pan. Make sure your pan is dried and clean to start the assembly process. Add just enough of the sauce to cover the bottom of your pan. It should be about 1 1/2 cups of sauce! Take a noodle and spoon about 1/4 c of the cheese mixture on the bottom of the noodle! This took some trial and error for me! I found the easiest way to do this was to spoon the mixture on about an inch from the bottom of the noodle. Spread it out a little with your fingers and start to roll the noodle! You'll have to figure out what works best for you! I made about 3 extra noodles just so I could practice a couple of times without losing any of our food! Place them on top of the sauce in the pan, seam side down! Cover with the remaining sauce and place aluminum foil over the pan. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes and then remove the foil (CAREFUL: DON'T BURN YOURSELF WITH THE STEAM). Add the remainder of the Parmesan cheese, and bake about 5-7 more minutes or until the cheese is brown and bubbly. Remove from oven and let stand for a few minutes to cool! 

Serve and enjoy!

I'm going to try and start writing the night before so all I have to do before heading out is hit publish and we can be on our way! I love sharing our recipes with ya'll and you've given me such an overwhelming response that I want to make sure to keep it up! I've got to figure out what I'm going to do to make up for the photo challenge this month. Maybe next month I will take 2 pictures a day and go from there!

Until next time...

~Happy Eating~

 

--"Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you"-- 

~Frank Lloyd Wright~

 

 

Country Cooking-Spinach Cannelloni

After reading through my new cookbook some more, (Country Recipes), I decided to make spinach cannelloni. Her description of this recipe will make you feel like you're in Italy with her! She talks about friends and family sharing recipes and meals together, and how fresh everything was that they cooked with. Even though the recipe seemed long and tedious (just by looking at it), it was much easier than I expected! The only difference was that when we went to the grocery store, I thought I remembered someone (DJ) saying in the isle that spaghetti sauce was in the cart. I think I must have dreamed that, and didn't even enough supplies to make my own. However, we did have Alfredo sauce in the pantry, so I used that. You make your own white sauce in this recipe so ours was very creamy and delicious! I will probably make it again and use the red sauce just to see what the difference in the flavor is. So let's get started with the ingredients you will need for this:

Ingredients
3 TBS olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, minced
2 cups cooked spinach, squeezed dry and chopped
1 TBS butter (I used about 1 1/2)
1 pound ground sirloin (we used venison)
2 TBS chopped fresh parsley (store was out, I used dried-and used only about half)
2 TBS chopped fresh oregano (store was out, I used dried-and used only about half)
1 TBS basil
1 large egg, beaten
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 TBS light cream
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
12 cooked manicotti tubes (or pasta sheets--I used manicotti)
4-5 cups Italian Tomato Sauce (forgot this--we used Alfredo)

Besciamella (White Sauce)
4 TBS butter
4 TBS all-purpose flour
2 cups light cream or half-and-half
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

First, I got my water boiling for the manicotti noodles. Then, in a large skillet, you're going to heat the oil and add the garlic and onion to the oil and saute. You are not wanting to brown the garlic and onion, just cook until they are translucent. Next you're going to add the spinach and cook about 5 minutes until the mixture becomes dry. Remove everything from the skillet, and place in a large bowl. In the same skillet, you are going to melt the butter and brown the meat.  Once the meat no longer pink, add the meat, oregano, egg, parsley, basil, cream, 1/3 cup of Parmesan, salt and pepper to taste, and the nutmeg to the bowl and mix well!
Don't forget about your manicotti! You're going to want to cook them al dente and make sure they are not "too done" because they will fall apart on you while you're trying to stuff them.

 Before the oven

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and stuff each tube of manicotti with the meat mixture. Pour your red sauce (in our case white) on the bottom of the pan (just a thin layer). Next add the stuffed manicotti and then layer with the red sauce again, and then a layer of the Besciamella (white sauce), and then finish it off with Parmesan cheese! Pop it in the oven for about 40 minutes, or until the cheese and bubbly and brown! Serve and enjoy!

After we dug in! Yummy

If you're interested in purchasing the wonderful cookbook you can find it here! It's $18.95 on Amazon!

Stay tuned for more recipes and

~Happy Eating~