Italian Manicotti Oven Recipe

Italian Manicotti Oven Recipe



Ingredients needed:

* 1 pound of lean ground round
* 3 cloves of minced garlic
* 2 onions, chopped
* Large can of diced tomatoes (28 ounce)
* 8 ounce package of fresh mushrooms
* 1 teaspoon of fennel seed
* 2 teaspoons of basil
* 1 teaspoon of seasoned salt
* 1/2 teaspoon of pepper
* 2 packages of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained (packages should be 10 ounces each)
* 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, divided
* 2 cups of small curd cottage cheese, drained
* 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon of pepper
* 14 manicotti shells, cooked al dente

Preparation steps:

* Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
* In a large skillet, brown ground beef, then add garlic and onion. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain. Add tomatoes and liquid, mushrooms, fennel seed, basil, salt, and pepper and stir to mix. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes; stir occasionally.
* In a separate bowl, stir together spinach, half the parmesan, cottage cheese, nutmeg, and pepper. In a sprayed 9-inch by 13-inch baking dish, spoon about 1/3 of beef sauce evenly over bottom of dish.
* Fill manicotti shells with spinach mixture and place on beef layer in baking dish. Repeat until all spinach mixture has been used in manicotti shells.
* Pour remaining beef sauce evenly over manicotti shells to cover. Sprinkle remaining parmesan cheese over top. Cover and bake for 1 1/2 hours or until shells are tender.

Enjoy and share!