Easy Manicotti

Photo Courtesy of Brad Lovejoy

This has been the most beautiful northwest summer that I can remember. Days were sunny and warm without being too hot and evenings were clear and and dare I say, a bit balmy. We had no recorded rain in July, a fraction of an inch in August and about the same in September. Although we could begin to smell Fall in the air, it did not arrive until four days ago. And with a change in temperature, came the rain. Needless to say, it is time to pull out the sweaters and rain shoes and to start preparing comfort foods for dinner.

I ended up choosing this easy manicotti as my first comfort dish. Lucky for me, my friend Kasia had a bumper crop of tomatoes and I was the recipient of the overflow. I started my morning by blanching the tomatoes and then cooking them down into a beautiful homemade tomato sauce. I tend to wing my tomato sauce recipes so my final product is a little bit different every time. This time I added minced garlic from my garden, chopped white onion, olive oil, fresh garden basil and oregano, kosher salt, black pepper and white sugar. I am convinced that the best way to make sauce is to add ingredients based on your personal taste so I am not providing measurements for each ingredient. I also love starting in the morning and cooking the sauce down for 6 to 8 hours. The house smells great as the sauce cooks and the flavors have time to meld.

Once the sauce was done cooking all day, I was ready to prepare the following manicotti recipe. 

Ingredients:
1 box organic manicotti shells ( I used Garden Time organic shells)
olive oil
16 oz low-fat ricotta cheese
1/3 cup grated parmesan plus 1/4 cup for topping
1 lb ground beef, ground turkey, sausage or tofu (I used grass fed ground beef)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp pepper
4 cups spaghetti sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Saute meat in splash of olive oil, set aside. Cook manicotti shells according to package directions and set aside. Combine cooked meat, spinach, ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, nutmeg and pepper.

Stuff manicotti shells with mixture and arrange in 9" X 13" baking dish. Pour spaghetti sauce over manicotti and bake for 45 minutes. Serve and top with Parmesan cheese.

I am going to make my overview short and sweet today. This recipe is quite flavorful. My favorite part of the dish is the way the nutmeg compliments the creaminess of the ricotta. I always grate my own whole nutmeg (see photo below) with a microplane zester/grater which adds a depth of flavor that does not occur when you use pre-ground nutmeg.

I also appreciated the ease of preparation. If I hadn't prepared sauce from scratch, total preparation time would have been less than 20 minutes. As a side note, I prepared half of the manicotti with sliced olives instead of beef. I cut large whole black olives into three slices and then added them to half of the ricotta mixture. I liked the vegetarian version as well as the beef version and Olivia couldn't seem to get enough of it. You could easily forego meat and prepare the manicotti with olives or another firm vegetable. 

Finally, I know I often get on my soap box about using fresh and organic ingredients but I swear it makes a huge difference. Grass fed beef has a more robust flavor than run-of-the-mill beef and using fresh herbs adds a brightness to food that can be found no other way. Enjoy!

Recipe Courtesy of Garden Time Organics