Since then, I've become more comfortable experimenting with recipes. One of the first I experimented with was the Betty Crocker manicotti recipe. The first time I made it, I copied it straight out of the book. While it was good, it had no zip. It wasn't something that would make me crave it for 8 years. It took me two years of playing with it and two very special people (thank you my dear brother and niece) tasting each version to come up with a recipe that I love, but I did it.
I thought I would share the recipe with you, but I must warn you, I don't measure, I just pour, mix, and taste. So, if you are one of those people who have to know exactly how much of a spice has to go into it, you may be out of luck. I'll try to give you estimated measurements, but let me tell you that the best way to know how much of a spice to use is to put a little in and taste it. If it doesn't taste like enough, add a little more. That said, here we go.
Ingredient List:
Manicotti Shells
Filling:
Sweet Italian Sausage 1 lb
Cottage cheese 1 large tub
Parmesan cheese 1/2 cup (I use fresh because it's much less oily than pre-grated)
Mozzarella cheese 2 lbs
Fresh spinach 1 to 2 cups (I used 2, but I love spinach)
Mushrooms 4 or 5 large ones (I used button mushrooms, feel free to use something else)
Fresh garlic 4 or 5 cloves
Nutmeg 1 tsp
Sauce:
4 cans tomato sauce
6 Roma tomatoes
1 large onion
1 red bell pepper
5 or 6 large mushrooms (Again, I used buttons, but you don't have to.)
1 bulb of fresh garlic (Not a clove, 1 whole bulb. You can use less if you don't like garlic as much as I do.)
2 tsp basil
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp chili powder
1/ 4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp brown sugar
Salt to taste
Let's get started!
First of all, to make this recipe you will need a good blender, chopper, whatever. I'm a big fan of the Ninga. See how pretty it looks? Best kitchen appliance I ever bought myself!
(You may ask why a blender is so important. Well, everything in this recipe is pureed, accept the noodles, of course.)
1. The first thing you need to do is brown the sausage in a stock pot or other similar type pot. Once it's browned, remove the sausage from the pot and place in a large mixing bowl for later. This is my favorite brand of sausage to use, because the pie ends up being less greasy than with other brands I have tried. I don't know if you can get it outside of Colorado, though.
2. Next puree the tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, and garlic and pour into the pot you cooked the sausage in. (The little bit of sausage grease left in the pot will give it a little flavor.) Mix in the tomato sauce, basil, oregano, chili powder, cinnamon, brown sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil, then let simmer, stirring occasionally, until you're ready to pour over the stuffed noodles.
(Don't forget to taste the sauce every once in a while so you can add more spices if it isn't to your liking.)
3. Puree the sausage and mushrooms and pour back into the mixing bowl. Next, puree the garlic, spinach, and half of the cottage cheese. Pour that into the mixing bowl. Then puree the rest of the cottage cheese, about 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese and the Parmesan and put it in the mixing bowl. (Don't forget to grate the Parmesan.)
(If you don't have one of these, get one. I love, love, love mine!)
4. Mix all the ingredients in your mixing bowl until the mixture is a uniform greenish color. (Sounds gross, tastes great!) It should look like this:
5. Now comes the pain in the rear part. You've got to stuff the uncooked noodles with the green mixture. (I don't precook the noodles because I can't stuff them without splitting them wide open. but if you're good at stuffing cooked noodles, go right ahead. Just cut the baking time to about 1/2 hour if you do.)
6. Place stuffed noodles in a large baking pan like so:
(I prefer glass baking pans for anything with pasta.)
7. Cover noodles with sauce.
8. Top off with mozzarella cheese and bake at 375 for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Let sit for about 10 minutes before you dig in.
(Ta Da! Here's the finished product. Enjoy.)
This recipe will yield 2 large pies with enough sauce left over for spaghetti the next night. I also had some filling left over. My niece and I are going to experiment with putting it on the roasted garlic flavored Triskets. I'll let you know how that turns out.
Before I go, I want to talk a little bit about garlic, since there's so much in this recipe. Until I was about 35 years old, I had no clue how to peal garlic. I tried to peal it like an onion and got sticky and stinky. I finally learned the proper way to peal garlic from a show on the cooking channel. Life savor! Now I want to pass that knowledge on to the next generation. If you already know how to peel garlic, just ignore this tutorial.
You'll need a cutting board and a broad knife.
Place the clove on the cutting board, round side down.
Place flat of knife on the clove and apply pressure. Don't press too hard or you'll pulverise the clove.
Now you can just peal the hard skin off of the garlic.
(I want to thank my lovely niece, Alica, for being such a wonderful hand model for my garlic tutorial.)
Well, my loves, that's this week's post. I know it's not about crafting, but as I said in my opening post, I'm gonna write about any damn thing I want to here. I hope you enjoy the recipe, and feel free to tweak it as much as you want. After all, a recipe should be more of a jumping off point for great flavor, rather than the end all and be all of a dish.
With love,
The Crocheting Cat Lady
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