Delicious, Hearty, Manicotti al Forno

 

We came across this recipe for manicotti al forno in Mario Batali's new cook book Molto Batali. We're big fans of manicotti normally - the enchiladas of Italian cuisine, as we like to say - but have always stuck to a pretty traditional, family learned recipe, with just a simple cheese filling and lots of mozzarella on top.   (For essentially that cheese filling recipe, we used the same on in our stuffed shells).

When we saw this recipe then, we were intrigued. No mozzarella, and a filling of meat and cheese. Additionally, the original recipe calls for baking the manicotti in a vodka cream tomato sauce. We didn't have the vodka cream sauce ingredients on hand, and so slightly adapted the recipe. The result? Our new favorite version of manicotti. Read on to see how to do it.

Making the Dish
What you'll need:
1 package manicotti tubes
2 tbsp olive oil
3/4 lb ground veal
3/4 lb ground lamb
1 egg
1.5 cups pecorino romano cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 cup ricotta cheese
1.5 cups tomato sauce

To get started, heat up your olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Throw in the lamb and veal and cook, breaking up into small bits with your spoon, until the meat is cooked. Remove the meat from the heat, drain out the fat, and set the meat on a paper towel to cool.

Start cooking the manicotti and cook until about 2 minutes shy of the package directions. You'll want them to be fairly firm when they're done so you can handle them more easily. Drain the manicotti and rinse under cool water.

When the meat mixture has cooled slightly, add it to a bowl with the ricotta, half a cup of the pecorino, the egg, and the parsley. Mix together thoroughly.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. In a baking dish, lay down a layer of tomato sauce. Then, start filling up the manicotti tubes gently with a small spoon so as not to break them. This part can be tricky. When the tube is filled with the meat mixture, place it into the baking dish. Do this until all your meat mixture is used up. (In our case, we had some extra meat mixture, so we just placed that along the sides of the manicotti tubes.)

When all the tubes are filled, layer the remaining tomato sauce over the manicotti. Then, sprinkle your remaining cheese over the top so that the entire top is covered.

Place in the oven for 25 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the sauce is bubbling. Remove from the oven and let the dish rest for about 5 - 10 minutes so the cheese mixture can start to set. It'll be difficult to wait due to how good it's smelling, but try.











The Result

At the end of this you'll have a delicious, cheesy, meaty, tomatoey plate of food and you will be dying to dig in. The manicotti will be nice and tender, and the meat mixture rich and creamy. Garnish with extra pecorino cheese if you like, and enjoy!

One year ago: Turkey Meatballs