Manicotti stuffed with Ricotta-Spinach-Mushroom

Manicotti is tubular pasta, about 3” long and an inch in diameter. The manicotti shells are stuffed and baked in a tomato/marinara sauce with cheese.

You can get very creative with this as you can stuff just about anything that suits your taste buds!

The stuffing part is a little bit labor-intensive, but totally worth the effort.

Ingredients

• Manicotti shells- 1 box, 12oz (about 14 shells)
• Ricotta cheese- 15oz container
• Spinach- 10oz frozen chopped…thawed and completely drained
• Mushroom- 6oz pack, diced
• Olive oil- 1 tbsp
• Garlic- 2 cloves, minced
• Dried Italian seasoning- 1tbsp (or whatever you have in the pantry- dried basil, oregano, thyme, marjoram, etc)
• Parmigiano Reggiano cheese- ½ cup grated (or use any slightly salty cheese like feta, or Mexican cheeses like cotija, queso fresco)
• Salt and pepper- as needed
• Basil- 5-6 medium leaves, roughly chopped
• Tomato sauce- home made or store bought, 1 bottle

1. Turn on the oven at 350F.
2. Cook the manicotti shells according to the package directions, usually about 9 min. But kill the heat a minute or two before it finishes cooking, at 7min or so. Remember we are going to bake the shells.
3. Drain the pasta water and separate the shells. This is important because the shells will stick onto each other. Handle them carefully as they may tear apart. Line them up on a greased baking sheet (or 2 sheets if cooking all 14 shells).
4. Heat a sauce pan with 1 tbsp oil. Add the garlic cloves and immediately add the mushroom (you don’t want the garlic to burn). In about 3 min, add the thawed and completely drained spinach. Add salt and pepper as needed and let it wilt away for 5min. Add the roughly chopped basil leaves and kill the heat. Cool completely.
5. In a separate bowl, add the spinach-mushroom mixture to the ricotta cheese. Mix well. Taste the filling and adjust accordingly.
6. Now fill the shells with the stuffing very carefully. In fact, use your hands to fill them instead of a spoon! Place the filled shells onto the greased baking sheet.
7. Top with generous amounts of tomato sauce.

Variation:
Use lasagna sheets instead of a manicotti shell. Cook the lasagna, spread the studding evenly on it and roll it up-pinwheels!