remix

I ended up with a lot of extra cheese filling and tomato sauce from the ravioli -- and decided to use them to make this super-easy manicotti. It's always so gratifying to make good use of left-overs!

I got the idea to use no-boil lasagna noodles from Cooks Illustrated -- they hold up so much better than boiled pasta and you don't have the mess of trying to pipe in the filling.  

Simply pour boiling water into a shallow baking dish, add noodles (in a single layer -- careful they will want to stick together) and soak for roughly 5 min, just until they soften and become pliable.  Then spread filling on the bottom 3/4 of noodle and roll.  Fill the bottom of a baking dish with about 1 1/2 cups of the tomato sauce and add rolled manicotti (seam side down).  Top with more sauce, cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 40 min (or until bubbling).   Remove foil, top with grated parmesan and place under broiler for 4-6 min -- until cheese is spotty brown.

 

I served the manicotti with a classic cheesy garlic bread...Mmmm...so good.

Recipe--

1 loaf rustic Italian bread

9-10 cloves of garlic, whole, peel on

6 tbl unsalted butter, softened

1/2 tsp salt

4 tbl parmesan cheese

8 oz mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Meanwhile, toast garlic cloves in a small saute pan over medium heat, tossing occasionally, until fragrant (about 8 min). Once cool enough to handle, peel and mince garlic cloves and combine with butter, salt and 2 tbl parmesan -- using a fork to mash.  Cut bread in half lengthwise and spread cut sides with butter mixture.  Place loaf back together and wrap with foil.  Bake in oven for 10 min.  Remove from oven and discard foil.  Preheat broiler. Sprinkle cut sides with mozzarella and remaining 2 tbl parmesan.  Place under broiler until cheese is bubbling and browned in spots.