Ahead of Christmas, the kids and I ventured to a Caputo's unsure if I could pull of homemade Raviolis. In lieu of a major screw up, I picked up frozen Raviolis and Manicotti shells with a surplus of Ricotta and Mascarpone. Now I have a serious stock of Italian goodies to use up. Happily, I pulled off the Raviolis, froze the extra Mushroom filling I made for the Raviolis after I realized they took way longer than I realized to stuff, crimp and set, and figured I would use it for another day.
Well it's not quite the New Year, and while I usually eat pretty healthy, lately I have been craving comfort food a bit more than usual. Blame it on COVID, the holidays, or just the fact that delicious Italian dishes are super easy to feed my crew, I figured why not make Manicottis and use up some of all these wonderful cheese I picked up. Plus I find them kind of fun to make.
So first things first, I always try to add vegetables to every meal. Almost always at least. In this case, I decided to use Spinach. Spinach and Ricotta are always a great combo. Then I had all this delicious Mushroom filling from my raviolis I could add in to give it some extra richness as well as extra veggies.
But before I could focus on all that, I figured I should get my sausage going. I used mild Italian Sausage for these. Jewel had a buy one get one, bless their hearts. I had tossed it into the deep freeze last month and out of laziness on Sunday while de-thawing meat, grabbed this. I'm really glad I did! I added in fresh garlic and onions, and used around the size of a large jar of Rao's Marinara (28 oz, Costco sized). This is my go-to marinara when I don't have marinara from our garden stored. Usually around February every year I run out. True story, I plant too many tomato plants in our garden every year. Fortunately I still had a decent batch of homemade Basil Marinara to use up, so I used that, hence a little lighter tomato sauce color than usual in my photos.
While that was cooking, I began cooking down my frozen spinach so I could ensure it didn't have any liquids left. No one wants a soggy Manicotti. Then I added in my frozen mushroom filling which while not totally necessary, was a wonderful addition to the pasta. I included the instructions below. Lastly, I let it all cool and mixed in with my go-to Ricotta mixture. Breadcrumbs, eggs, Parmesan and some light seasonings. I even had a bit of help cracking the eggs today :)
After we mixed it all up, it didn't exactly look beautiful, but tasted heavenly. I added the mixture into a gallon sized ziplock bag, smooshed it all into the corner and cut off a small tip. Large enough to stuff the Manicottis but small enough to ensure it didn't go all over the place, mostly. From there I began filling.
When you're filling Manicottis, it involves a bit of grunt work. I fill one side to almost half of the Manicotti, then flip it over and fill the other side. In the event I'm not convinced it's stuffed completely, I use a butter knife to move the filling down and create a bit more space to ensure every inch of the pasta is filled to maximum capacity.
I take a 9x13 pan, and put about a cup to a cup and a half or so of marinara/meat mixture onto the bottom. I do this so I don't have to cook the manicottis ahead of filling them. I've done it before and it's a real pain. This way, they can cook in their own liquids absorbing all the marinara flavors and I avoid having to wash one more pan. Win/win. You want to ensure the bottom of the pan is totally covered with a light coating of sauce. After that, I lay the Manicottis in.
They're a bit messy, and a little crowded, but it's OK. They will cook through since we cook it using aluminum foil and on a low temp of 350°. After that, we top with the rest of the marinara/meat sauce ensuring every inch is totally covered. This is very important. This helps them cook evenly. Lastly, we top with Mozzarella.
From there, I lightly spray aluminum foil with some olive oil to prevent any sticking and pop into my 350° oven for one hour. After one hour, you will take off the aluminum foil, bump up the oven to 375° and cook for about 10-15 more minutes, until the mozzarella is starting to brown and bubble. Pull it out of the oven and let it rest for at least 5 minutes before you start cutting into it. Top it with Parsley if you're feeling fancy and enjoy!
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