Thursday, November 4, 2010

Busy Gal Manicotti

I remember an old old episode of 3rd Rock From the Sun when Sally - 2nd alien in command, takes a job and doesn't have time to make her horrible home cooked meals for the "family". The men folk ask her, what's for supper? And she hurriedly throws raw lasagna noodles on a plate and squirts ketchup on it. Busy Gal Lasagna!So on occasion, I take my cooking tips from Sally... Not with raw noodles! But if I can find a short cut, I'll take it and then call it Busy Gal casserole, or BG manicotti.

Speaking of manicotti! Was visiting with Texan Mama a few weeks ago and she sent me a recipe. Manicotti is pretty hard to make, what with putting a cheesy filling inside of a slippery noodle... But she found a recipe that makes it with lasagna noodles! You just spread the filling on a noodle, roll it up and then pour canned spaghetti sauce over the whole pan! Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!
I'm including the recipe here... But keep in mind, you don't have to use the quick type lasagna noodles. I didn't have them, so I boiled some up. Also, you don't have to use the sauce they use here. Texan Mama used canned spaghetti sauce and that worked out great! Oh! And we're not fans of Ricotta, so I used cottage cheese.

I made a variation of the recipe for my daughter who had to get out the door quick for play practice and couldn't stick around for an extra 30 minutes... I put a bit of the filling in a bowl with some precooked curly noodles that I had in the fridge. Poured a little spaghetti sauce on top, mixed it around and microwaved it. She loved it!

Another variation was for my mother in law who can't eat tomato sauce of any kind. I made a white sauce with butter, flour and a little milk and poured that over the filling mixed with the cooked curly noodles. She really liked it.So anyway. Enjoy and make your own variations!

9 comments:

Pennie said...

THANKS! Always looking for easy meals. And I LOVED the 3rd Rock from the Sun episodes...haven't seen it in years!

McVal said...

In reading this after posting, I just realized I forgot to top it with more parmesan cheese! I THOUGHT it was missing something!

Annie Jones said...

Looks easy and yummy. Shane doesn't like ricotta, either, so I use cottage cheese, too.

If I want to make manicotti, I put the filling in either a piping bag (like for decorating cakes) or a jerky/sausage press, then just squirt it into uncooked manicotti. Then cover it with extra sauce and cook it just like the recipes for lasagna where you don't cook the noodles first.

I've heard of people stuffing manicotti with string cheese. Sounds easy, but expensive.

I've also made lasagna with layers of cheese ravioli between layers of sauce and meat. It's a little expensive, but VERY easy.

Ok, I'll shut up now.

Macey said...

The most amazing thing is that your MIL liked what you cooked her.

LenoreNeverM♡re said...

YUM~ I love to watch the bubbly pan in the oven!
I need to get a life huh?!

xo

Connie said...

That sounds good and easy!

I like the idea of using the lasagna noodles instead of the slippery noodle.

Sonya Ann said...

This looks super good!!! This sounds so much better than the can of soup I had planned for the evening. Oh well, its easy and cheap!
Have a great weekend!

Cíntia Pandolfi said...

It should be a delight will have some video on youtube explaining how to do?
Cíntia
aprendizdecostura

Carma Sez said...

this is great. We love manicotti and you are correct that the noodles fall to pieces - this looks so much easier!

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