Valentines Day Manicotti

For Valentines Day I decided I should make something my girlfriend had never had before. Turns out she’s never had Manicotti. I went to my family cookbook and found a great recipe from my Uncle Yvon, which involved cooking for a few hours for her. Perfect. Hit the jump for a picture of the finished product and a full recipe to making my Uncle Yvon’s Manicotti from scratch.

The Manicotti is made in two parts, and the first requires much more prep time than the second, so you’ll want to start this recipe in the morning.

3 Tomatoes
3 – 5 1/2 ounce cans of Tomato Paste
2 Cups Sliced Mushrooms
2 Cups Chopped Celery
1/4 Cup of Bacon Bits (Say wah!? yes, it actually is good)
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
1/2 teaspoon Oregano
2 small fresh red chili peppers
3 tablespoons of Garlic Powder
3 cloves of crushed Garlic
1 tablespoon of Italian Seasoning
2 Medium Bay Leaves
1/4 teaspoon of Salt
1/4 teaspoon of Sugar
0.750 kg of Ground Beef
1 tablespoon Soy Sauce
1/2 teaspoon Seasoned Meat Tenderizer
3 oz. Red Wine

Dice the Tomatoes and put them in the slow cooker along with the cans of tomato paste. Add the mushrooms, celery and finely chopped onions to the mix. Add the bacon bits and all of the following spices (vary to your taste): Worcestershire sauce, cayenne, oregano, crushed and chopped red chili peppers, garlic powder, garlic cloves, italian seasoning, bay leaves (remove before serving later), salt, pepper and sugar. Stir it all together, then set on low and cook for approx. 2 hours.

In a non-stick frying pan, cook the hamburger along with the soya sauce, seasoned meat tenderizer and 1/2 tsp of onion powder. Add 1/2 cup of water and brown hamburger until done. Strain and add to sauce.

Stir occasionally and by about noon add 3 oz of red wine. Stir in and cover. One hr before serving the manicotti add 3 more oz of red wine. Stir and leave uncovered. Don’t forget to remove the Bay leaves now.

Now you’ll need to start work on the manicotti itself.

1 box oven ready manicotti shells
2 1/2 cups shredded Mozzarella Cheese
3 Italian Sausages (you can use hot, but I used the sweet basil kind… mmm)
1 cup dry curd cottage cheese
1 cup finely chopped spinach
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste (I didn’t use any salt because of the saltiness of the sweet basil sausages)

Start by boiling the Manicotti shells in water for about 10 minutes in order to make them soft but not cooked. While you are cooking the shells, skin the Italian sausage then cut it up into small pieces and cook it completely through. Add the sausage to the Sauce that you have been cooking all day.

Mix 2 cups of the mozzarella along with the other two cheeses and the spinach in order to make a filling for the Manicotti. You may want to keep some of the Parmesan cheese separate in order to melt it over top of the finished Manicotti as well.

Spread a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of a 9×13 (3L) baking dish and then holding the Manicotti vertical while pressing the bottom side into the sauce, stuff them with the cheese and spinach mixture. Lay the Manicotti rolls as close together as possible to help them retain shape once the cheese inside starts to melt. Layer the remaining 1/2 cup of mozzarella and any Parmesan you’ve left aside. Pour over another layer of sauce and cover with foil to help retain the moisture then bake for approx 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees F. or until soft all the way through.

Remove from the oven and serve with a bit of baby spinach garnish and a vinaigrette salad.

Overall I was very satisfied with how this turned out, but I didn’t use the Hot Italian Sausage and found that a little bit of a kick would have been nice with it. Adding a bit of Siriacha sauce over this gave it a nice kick and was much needed. Overall we really liked this meal though.