Bake Your Pasta

I used to think red sauce was the only thing you put on pasta. I sure loved my spaghetti and meatballs! As I got older, I discovered the joys of white sauce. In fact, I even eat Donato's "Chicken Spinach Tomato Alfredo" pizza!  This particular recipe can be a relatively easy fix for those who don't love to cook or you can tweak some of the ingredients and really make it your own. The hardest part is stuffing the manicotti shells.  It takes both red and white sauce, so you are already off to an interesting flavor!

Three Cheese Manicotti Florentine

Ingredients:
1 jar marinara sauce (or your fabulous homemade sauce)         12 uncooked manicotti shells
1 jar creamy Alfredo sauce                  1/4 c. water                      1 c. shredded mozzarella

Cheese Filling: 15 oz. ricotta cheese      2 c. chopped spinach       1 c. shredded mozzarella
1/2 c parmesan     1 egg, beaten            1/2 tsp. salt                       1/2 tsp. black pepper

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375.
2. Spread marinara sauce over bottom of a greased 9x13 dish.
3. Combine filling ingredients and put in a gallon food storage bag.
4. Press out air and seal.
5. Push filling toward bottom corner of bag
6. Snip off corner and squeeze mixture into manicotti shells.
7. Arrange the manicotti in the baking dish.
8. Combine alfredo sauce and water; pour over manicotti.
9. Sprinkle with 1. c mozzarella.
10. Cover with aluminum foil. 
11. Bake for 60 minutes; uncover and continue baking for 10 minutes.
12. Let stand 5 minutes.

Easy, right? If you wanted to add some fun .. sub in red pepper flakes for the black or add some garlic to one or both of your sauces.  You could even try and make your own alfredo sauce to go along with your fabulous homemade red sauce. This recipe is high in yum factor!

As always, have fun!