Tinfoil Chef

I guess I’m stuck on the Italian / pasta theme these days. What can I say about it other than the fact that I like both pasta and Italian dishes and this one is just entirely too taste tempting not to do it.

Start with a pound of Italian sweet sausage links in 1/4 cup of water in a 5 quart covered Dutch oven. Cook the sausage links for 5 minutes Over a medium heat. Then uncover, brown the sausage well and then take them out and drain them on a paper towel.

Spoon the fat from the Dutch oven.

Over a medium heat brown a pound of ground beef (or ground turkey!) and a chopped medium onion, stir in two 16oz cans of tomato puree, 1 6oz can of tomato paste, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of pepper, 1 teaspoon of basil, 1 teaspoon of salt, and a cup of water. Let this simmer covered for 45 minutes.

Cut the sausage links into bite sized pieces and add them to the mixture and cook for 15
minutes or so, stirring occasionally. While that’s cooking, cook an 8oz package of manicotti according to package directions and drain.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Then in a large bowl, mix 4 cups of ricotta cheese and 8oz of diced mozzarella cheese, 2 tablesoons of chopped parsley, 3/4 teaspoon of basil, 1/2 teaspoon of salt. When it’s thoroughly mixed stuff the cheese mixture into the manicotti shells.

Spoon half of the meat sauce into a 13″ x 9″ baking dish. Make a layer of sauce covered with half of the Manicotti shells. Reserve 3/4 cup of the sauce and use the rest to make another layer of sauce and Manicotti shells. Use the reserved meat sauce to make a top layer of sauce, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and bake for 30 minutes.

1 pound Italian sweet sausage links
1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
2 16oz cans tomato puree
1 6oz can tomato paste
1 teaspoon. sugar
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons of chopped parsley
basil
salt
1 8 oz. package manicotti shells
4 cups ricotta cheese
1 8 oz. package mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese

Technorati Tags: italian sweet sausage, ground turkey, manicotti recipe, ground beef, italian pasta recipe, pasta recipe, italian recipe

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