Pizzeria Makeline Manicotti
Author: Pizza Today
Recipe type: Entree
Ingredients
- 6 dried manicotti tubes
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ medium red onion (1¼ ounces), diced very fine
- 1 cup fresh spinach, or ½ cup blanched spinach
- ½ cup (1½ ounces) cooked bacon crumbles from your make line, chopped very fine
- ½ cup Parmesan
- 1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Your own proprietary marinara sauce
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
- Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil, adding 3 teaspoons of salt. (The salt will keep the manicotti from sticking to each other.)
- Add the manicotti and boil for 7 minutes, keeping the pasta al dente. (Note: if you boil manicotti too much, the ridges will split.)
- Pull from the water and place on waxed paper or parchment to cool.
- Sauté the onion in the olive oil until the small bits are wilted, then add the spinach and a pinch of salt.
- Place the onion/spinach mixture in a large bowl with the Parmigiano and ricotta and mix thoroughly. Taste to check salt and season accordingly.
- Fill a piping bag with the ricotta mixture.
- Cut a hole into the bottom of the piping bag just smaller than the circumference of each manicotti barrel and fill each manicotti by piping the mix into each end.
- Use your finger to press the mix into each end.
- Place the manicotti into the marinara, making sure each pasta tube does not touch.
- Place in oven for 10 minutes and turn each manicotti over to prevent drying out the top.After another 10 minutes the middle will be hot. It is now that you may want to top with shredded mozzarella or provolone.
- (Another good option is to sauté more spinach to place under the pasta tubes on the plate.)
- Pull the tubes from the oven and spoon the marinara on a plate, then place the manicotti on the marinara and serve.
Â
