While I was home for Christmas, I watched (and photographed) my Mom while we made my favorite manicotti dish. This dish is so filling and perfect for the Winter and it makes enough to eat for a few days. In fact, in my opinion it is even better on day two and three.

This is the full dish:

This dish looks fantastic and tastes fantastic plus it is pretty easy to make. It does require some time though. I would recommend making it on a lazy weekend day where you can really enjoy the process. Have a glass of wine, make a good dinner, and eat it for a few days.

One note: As with most Italians, my Mom doesn’t have a recipe. I did my best to keep up and write it down as we worked. Luckily there is a lot of leeway in this recipe. If you get it close, it will be delicious.

Babs’s Italian Sausage and Ricotta Manicotti
(Make 18 manicotti. I can eat 3 on a good day so this easily serves 6.)

- 1 pound manicotti
- 1 pound Italian sausage (use however hot you can stand)
- 1/2 pound mushrooms, roughly chopped
- 5 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 pounds ricotta (what?)
- 1/2 pound mozzarella (what are you guffawing at?)
- 1 jar Marinara sauce (use your favorite)
- 1 28 ounce can Italian stewed tomatoes (the Italian version has herbs in it)
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley (most for the filling 2 Tablespoons or so for the topping)
- Salt and pepper

The first step in this recipe is getting the sauce going. It is better the longer it simmers so get it started first. Combine the marinara, tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste in a large sauce pan. Bring that to a simmer and then let it bubble on low.

Next, you need to brown all of that sausage. Get it started in a pan (no oil needed). Break it apart and let it brown. About half way through add those mushrooms and chopped garlic. You want those flavors incorporated with the sausage.

That has to cook for 15 or 20 minutes and then you need to drain some of the oil away. We just put it on a paper towel and let it drain while we prepped other stuff. So now you have your marinara bubbling and your sausage browned. Nice work, but we need some other stuff prepped.

Honestly, I had never really watched my mom make this and I would have messed up the manicotti step. I would have over thought the whole thing. What you should do is follow the directions on the package. DUH. Just dunk the guys in boiling salt water for the time listed on the bag which should be like 6-7 minutes. See, I would have tried to under-cook them thinking that I was going to let them finish cooking in the oven.

The manicotti makers already account for this in the cooking instructions. So when you pull them out after 6-7 minutes, they will still be pretty firm.

Now take your ricotta and mix in all of that sausage mixture. Also add all of your parsley except 2 Tablespoons of it. Stir this well and it get it all mixed up. You don’t want huge chunks of sausage or ricotta stuffed in these guys.

Ok. Now for the fun part. We have to stuff those manicotti with all of that ricotta sausage stuffing. Go slow and attack it from both ends. While the photo below is with a spoon, I learned after about two that the best way to handle it is with clean fingers.

Also, you may notice that one pound of manicotti is more like 24 manicotti shells. I assume that you will be like me and break 2 or 3 of them. Leave yourself a margin of error on these as some will split all the way down and then won’t bake well.

Next you need to fit as many of these as you can in a baking dish. Babs and I used a 9 X 13 dish and put a layer of that marinara first. Then we piled in as many of these stuffed pasta things as we could. Followed by all of the rest of the sauce, the mozzarella, and the additional parsley.

This needs to bake for probably 40 minutes at 350. What you are looking for is the signature cheese bubble in the middle of the dish. Once you pull this out, make sure you let it rest for 10 minutes or you will burn your mouth! (That’s my Mom’s instructions.)

This dish is really fantastic and I have no doubt that if you make it you will like it. As an aside, the bread on the above plate is the bread mentioned in yesterday’s post.

The thing about this dish that I really love though is that it reminds me how powerful cooking and food can be to bring people together. It makes me smile just looking at the photos because it recalls a wonderful time with family.

I’m sure everyone has those meals that hold a special place. This is definitely one of those for me.