Cheesy sausage stuffed manicotti
You ever have one of those nights where you just want to hide? That was my Monday night when I made this dish. The joy and joyness of Spring in Indiana is one day the weather can go from a pleasant and sunny 60 degrees all the way down to a cold and wet 30 degrees. I had expected to do some grilling on Monday night but the idea of standing in the garage watching it rain did not sound remotely fun. Well what to do what to do?
Even though I live alone I try to buy whole animals as much as possible. The advantages of buying whole animals is cheaper cost and you get to form a great relationship with your farmer so you know how the animal was raised. The major disadvantage (beside needing a small army of freezers in your garage that would convince your nosy neighbor you are hiding dead bodies) is you acquire a large quantity of ground meat. I am not saying ground meat is a bad thing but I never really know what to do with it (especially when you are staring at ten pounds of ground pork).
One use I have found and fell in love is mixing ground with some spinach and cheese, shoving it into some sort of pasta, covering it in sauce, and baking till golden delicious. Another one of my favorite uses I reserve for when the guys are over for poker or video games (yes I am still a geek at heart and see no problem spending an entire Friday night trying to beat a video game) are sausage rolls.
Well Monday night I decided that this was just the perfect night to use enough pots and pans that I would have to do three loads in the dishwasher. I mean heck what else I was going to do???
For this recipe you will need:
- 1 lb ground sausage
- 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika (I used hot Hungarian)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 onion finely diced
- 3 cloves of garlic finely diced
- 1 package of frozen spinach thawed, drained, and diced or 1 bunch of spinach blanched and diced
- 1 15 ounce container of ricotta cheese
- 4 cups of tomato sauce
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 4 cups of whole milk
- Couple grater swipes of nutmeg
- Enough Parmesan cheese to clog your left ventricle
- Couple good handfuls of mozzarella cheese
- 1 box of manicotti shells that have been boiled til ale dente
Yes that appears to be a overwhelming list of ingredients but it can be easily broken down.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Put the spinach, ricotta cheese, and a cup of the Parmesan cheese (is there such a thing as to much cheese?) in a large bowl. While that is resting on your counter over medium-high heat in a large skillet add the fennel seeds and cook till fragrant (about a minute). Keep the fennel seeds in the skillet and add the sausage in with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook the sausage till browned all over, drain the excess oil, and dump into the cheese bowl. Add the onion with another pinch of salt and pepper into the skillet and cook till softened (about 5 minutes). Add in the garlic, oregano, and paprika and cook for another 30 seconds. Remove this and dump in the cheese bowl. Combine thoroughly and adjust the taste with whatever your little heart desires.
Now take a large baking dish and put about 2 cups of the tomato sauce on the bottom of the dish in one even layer. Take your shells and using whatever means necessary get the stuffing inside them. One trick is throw the mixture in a Ziploc bag, cut off one of the corner, and use that a pastry bag. I was running low on Ziploc bags so I decided that a small spoon would be just frustrating enough to make me hate the decision to stuff tubular pasta. Lay the pasta in the baking dish and cover with the remaining two more cups of tomato sauce.
All you have left to make is the béchamel sauce. In a separate saucepan bring the milk to a simmer. Add the 4 tablespoons of butter and cook till the butter stops bubbling in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Add in the 1/4 cup of all purpose flour and whisk to combine. You want to cook this for a couple of minutes to get rid of the flour taste. Add in the warm milk a cup at a time and whisk each time to make sure it is fully combined. Once all the milk is combined let this mixture simmer for a good 5 minutes. Remove this mixture from heat and add in the nutmeg. Pour this mixture over the baking dish to cover the tomato sauce.
Now the fun part take your cheese grater and the slice of Parmesan cheese. Start grating cheese over the mixture till you think you have enough. Once you think you have enough grate a little bit more for good luck. Crumble the mozzarella over the top.
Shove this mixture into the oven until the cheese is browned and bubbly (about 30 minutes).
Serve and enjoy!
One final advantage of buying whole animals is when you ask for the head of the pig no one looks at you funny. However, if you have a pig’s head in your freezer do not let your date go through your freezer…..
Wow this looks delicious. Lot’s of leftovers for lunches. I lived on a farm and we always bought whole animal. The meat was so good.
buying whole animals? damage! you are so caveman! LOL
This looks SO good! Good thinkin on keeping your date out of the freezer…eek!
If you are looking for a another good recipe to use ground pork–here is one with sausage. (I suppose if you dont have sausage you can make your pork into ’sausage’ flavors with fennel and red pepper flakes). I use this one a lot– http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/tagliatelle-with-smashed-peas-sausage-and-ricotta-cheese-recipe/index.html
Nice. This looks really delicious.
I love the idea of buying the entire animal. i have to tell you that I had the hardest time finding a butcher in Phoenix to even sell me a whole pig leg..imagine if I asked for the whole pig. Love your blog
Your comment on DogB’s blog struck a cord- My mom used a pinch, a splash, a smidgin, etc…. She couldn’t cook, but she sure could bake!
You have me drooling! The sauce looks perfect to me and I love adding fennel to pork. Delicious meal!
What a delicious Manicotti Jeff, I really like a touch of that paprika in your recipe. It really add a tad of bite to it.
Cheers,
elra
This looks so good - I’m going to have to try it out this weekend. My husband (fellow OTer) referred me to your blog - he’s a happy camper since now I don’t cook things that suck. =D
I admire you for buying the whole animal. I wish I had the room/guts to do that.
My neighbour in the city was a weekend hunter, and had only one apartment freezer.. so the ice cream was under the bear when I was over..
Dinner looks awesome! You could cook for me anytime.
Oh I am so vicariously delighted that you get the chance to buy your whole animal. Living in a small apartment I have a tiny freezer but it’s always one of those things that seems to go along with baking your own bread and making your own yogurt. Like Master of your domain!
nick and i have looked into getting a quarter of a cow from a local butcher but haven’t ever bitten the bullet to do it. i’m seriously considering it now, though! this manicotti sounds delicious!
I hope I get invited to the next poker night. Especially if you serve me this! I’m in agreement about the pig’s head. Yikes!
I’ve never had a pig’s head in my freezer! This sounds like a good comforting dinner! The more dishes sometimes means the better meal!
This sounds fantastic.. Head of the pig, interesting..no, I dont think your date would like that, but cook this for her and I bet she’s yours.
mounds and mounds of melted cheese. no, i can’t think many other better ways to spend one’s monday night.
lol! yeah, my date would freak out and run away screaming if he saw a pigs’ head in my fridge!
this looks really really good, though! I like that you used sausage instead of regular ground meat!
I actually use a jerky gun( with sausage nozzle on it!) to fill my Manicotti- works like mad…
Well, at least you made a perfect comfy dish for a cold day… this Spring have been so cold so far…
If I tried to lug home a whole pig, my husband would probably divorce me! I can barely fit the Lean Cuisines in the freezer as it is!
Your manicotti looks divine! Creamy, meaty, cheesy and gooey - just as it should be. Well done!
Wow, if you’re making this for your friends, they are lucky. That’s a whole lotta good looking pasta. The female half of this Duo is not quite comfortable with butchering whole animals. Maybe one day…
Oh that looks so good! I know what you are talking about, I have like 30 pounds of ground beef in my freezer.
You just have to find a date that would be impressed with your pigs head in a freezer.
This looks unbelievable! That is quite impressive. I only have a small cube fridge (one of the perks of being a college student) and so buying whole animals is unrealistic.
I like your mentality of, well I might as well cook a huge meal just so I have something to do with my Monday night. At least you get to eat the final result.
Wow, that last pic really drives home how delish this manicotti is. Sausage is the real flavour booster here.