Oh Man(icotti)

Bean and I made manicotti last night. Because, of course, who doesn't like cheese? And more cheese! We bought block Parmesan and Romano cheese, and they were the most scrumptious taste-tests I have ever done.

This was an interesting experiment, as it was our first attempt at such a dinner endeavor.

The instructions, vaguely, were this:

1. Cook manicotti tubes like normal.

2. Simultaneously steam spinach.

3. In bowl, mix:

1 container of Ricotta cheese

Parmesan and Romano cheese, grated

Parsley

Basil

Pinch of salt

2 eggs

4. Chop up spinach and mix into cheese batch.

5. Fill a plastic bag with the mixture, seal it, and cut off one corner.

6. Squeeze into one side of a cooked pasta tube until half full; squeeze in from other side.

This is one hell of a messy procedure, but once I got the technique down, it was easy. Plenty of opportunities to lick your fingers clean of ricotta during preparation. I ingested nearly a meal's worth, in fact, before the damn dish was even baked!

The filled noodles were laid out on a tinfoil-covered pan, for easy cleaning purposes. Then they were covered with a thin (we're not huge tomato sauce fans) of Newman's Own marinara sauce, and sprinkled with way too much (never!) Parmesan and Romano.

Bake for approximately one-half hour! And they were delicious.