Delicious "I-Talian" goodness from my kitchen to yours!

So last night I discovered a new hobby:

annoying the crap out of Jason by shoving my camera in his face while he's trying to make me a delicious dinner from scratch. Like, grinding the meat himself from scratch.

 

But that also means I have a treat for you!

Plus, he was a pretty good sport. Only once did he say, "Jess. Seriously. Get that thing out of my face." So I give him points for that.

 

 

Todays recipe is...

 

 

 

It’s tasty Tuesday, folks. And that worked out really nice because all I have for you today is all of the photos I took while shoving my camera in Jasons face as he cooked last night. So recipe post it is!

 

We made ground chicken and spinach stuffed manicotti. 

 

Stop reading right here if you don’t like delicious stuff. Or keep reading to torture yourself because there’s something wrong with you and you deserve to be punished.

 

We made this manicotti almost from scratch. We didn’t make the sauce, and we of course didn’t process the cheese and noodles ourselves. But other than that… ha. 

 

First things first:

 

Ingredient List

1lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (or ground chicken if you don’t have a grinder)

2 handfuls of baby spinach (stems cut off)

½ large white onion

Mushrooms (to your liking)

10-15 Manicotti shells

12-15oz Whole milk ricotta

Large Bag Shredded mozzarella

1-2tsp Minced garlic

1/8 cup Italian breadcrumbs

Your favorite red sauce

Salt and pepper

 

 

 

 

Note: We bought a meat grinder attachment for my Kitchenaid Mixer a few weeks back and hadn’t gotten to use it yet. It basically inspired this meal. If you don’t have a meat grinder of any sort, just have the guys in your meat department grind your chicken for you, or buy it already ground (most grocery stores have this option).

 

 

 

 

First, get a large pot of water boiling for your manicotti shells. Salt the water generously and cook them about 3-4 minutes until they’re aldente. Drain the shells and return them to their plastic packaging to cool. You may want to wait to do the rest of the steps until the noodles are done so that they have time to cool. We didn’t and Jason had to fill extremely hot shells.

 

Next, give your spinach and mushrooms a rough chop, chop your onion finely, and clean any remaining skin or fat off of your chicken breasts and cut them into chunks.

 

 

Grind your chicken breast in your meat grinder with the spinach until it’s finely ground. Mix in your onion, mushrooms and a teaspoon or so of minced garlic. Then, mix in your ricotta, breadcrumbs, and large pinch of mozzarella. Stir in salt and pepper to taste, along with any other spices you may want.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once combined, cook chicken mixture in a frying pan until chicken is cooked through and onions are translucent.

 

 

In a 9” x 13” casserole dish, put down a thin layer of pasta sauce. Take a ziplock baggie and cut a hole in one corner of the bag to use as a piping bag (or use a piping bag if you have one). Fill the ziplock bag about 2/3 of the way with the chicken mixture and begin piping the filling into your shells, laying them in the dish once they’re filled. Continue until your dish is full, then pour in just enough sauce the cover the shells so they can finish cooking (we used the rest of a large sauce jar and it was too much sauce).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then sprinkle mozzarella cheese to cover over the top, along with some parsley and even some parmesan if you’d like. We chose to use Fancescas garlic parmesan shake. This also has parlsey in it.

 

 

Back at 375F for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

 

Then have a big glass of wine while it cooks.

 

 

 

Let sit for 5 minutes or so for the sauce to thicken. We served it with Texas Toast garlic ciabatta bread.

 

 

 

And if you're lazy like me and don't like to do a lot of dishes, just cook them on a piece of tin foil. You can use the same piece of foil to cover the leftovers later.

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy!