Ricotta Gnocchi with a Simple Tomato Sauce

What’s your favorite day to cook? Is there a point in the week when you most enjoy the process of creating a meal for yourself or to share with others? For me, it’s usually Friday. I cook a lot on Fridays, prep things for the weekend, and get excited to try new recipes. For a professional chef, the weekend falls on Monday and Tuesday. The new book, At Home in the Kitchen: Simple Recipes from a Chef's Night Off by David Kinch, of which I received a review copy, is all about his Tuesday cooking. That’s his Sunday. Unlike the dishes prepared at his restaurant Manresa, his home cooking is a far more relaxed situation. He shares the straightforward, crowd-pleasing dishes he offers to friends who join him at his “Pink Palace” California home for those days off. Music is a big part of those days as well, and each recipe in the book comes with a song suggestion. At the start, there are some basics like a few stocks, pickles, croutons, and mayo. The Chickpea Stock reminded me that I’d previously learned how dried chickpeas can add a good flavor boost to homemade stock, but I never seem to remember to try it. Here, the stock is completely chickpea-focused. It’s recommended for the Minestrone with pesto recipe found a few chapters later that I have to try while I have lots of basil growing. The first thing I tried was the Spicy Sesame Cucumber with Avocado salad. It’s thick and lovely from the smashed avocado, bright and fresh from the cucumber, and spicy with jalapeno. If you’re looking to take your grilled cheese sandwich to a new level, the version here comes with a crispy cheese veil. Cheese is browned in the pan, and the finished sandwich is set on top of it so you can lift the cheese up the sides of the sandwich with a spatula and then serve it crispy cheese side up. In the pasta chapter, there’s a walnut sauce made with ricotta that’s garnished with fried marjoram leaves, and that’s on my to-try list as well. There are meat and seafood dishes and Jambalaya, Paella, and California Crab Boil, but the vegetable dishes kept calling out to me. Another one to try is the Eggplant with Black Olive Tapenade made with thick slices of eggplant. For dessert, there are not-too-sweet options with lots of fruit. I like the idea of the Rice Pudding Sundae served with various options for toppings. And, the last chapter is drinks with a couple of sangrias perfectly suited to entertaining. The dish I want to talk more about today, though, is the Ricotta Gnocchi with a Simple Tomato Sauce. 

This is such a simple gnocchi recipe. It’s just a mix of ricotta and flour. I made it vegan by using a plant-based ricotta, and I mixed in some chopped basil. The mixture was patted into a one inch thick square and cut into wide slices. Each slice was rolled into a long log and then cut into little pillows. The pillows were rolled over with a fork to give them a curved shape. They were quickly cooked for about a minute in boiling water. For the sauce, I started with fresh, fabulous, local tomatoes. They were peeled by dropping them in boiling water, transferring them to ice water, and pulling off the skins. Cutting an X in the bottom of each tomato before boiling helps with pulling off the skins. They were seeded and then pureed in the blender. Finely chopped shallots were cooked in lots of olive oil, and I added garlic as well. Then, the tomato puree was added with salt and pepper and left to simmer for a bit. The sauce and cooked gnocchi were combined and topped, in my case, with basil although pecorino would also be great. 

This fresh tomato sauce made with just-picked, ripe tomatoes can’t be beat. As it goes here, our local tomato season is on the decline by August. I miss it already. But, the gnocchi could be made any time, and they’re so quick to pull together there’s no reason not to. I lack a Pink Palace near the beach, but I’ll have fun cooking the same fare enjoyed there.

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Kale Potato Cakes

I thought I was fairly familiar with the styles of cuisine from different regions in the United States. I’ve read about Low Country and Southern foods and their differences and similarities. But, it wasn’t until I read my review copy of Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes by Ronni Lundy that I was introduced to the foods of the Appalachian Mountain South. There was something familiar about the family recipes here. The use of home-grown vegetables, the mentions of the distinct flavors of fresh beans and just-dug potatoes, and the simplicity of the preparations reminded me of my grandparents’ cooking. I should mention, this is more than a cookbook. Ronnie Lundy grew up in eastern Kentucky and weaves the stories of this region with true understanding. The picturesque writing details the landscape along with the history of the towns and the people who have lived there. She writes: “I try to imagine what this journey was like on foot, as native people made it, and as many of the early settlers did, possessions stripped to not much more than tools for survival and seeds for planting. Switchbacks flanked by walls of rock and furiously rushing creeks are gorgeous, but equally perilous… I realize that while this was a passage of risk and hardship, it was also one of great possibility.” The book encourages travel as much as eating. She also writes of how things have changed over time and about some of the newly established restaurants in the area. The recipes represent traditional family fare as well as a few of the more recent restaurant dishes. There’s Shelley Cooper’s Speckled Butter Bean Cassoulet with Rabbit Confit from Dancing Bear Appalachian Bistro in Townsend, Tennessee alongside all the recipes for “the absolute best summer supper” including Mountain Green Beans and Taters, Skillet Corn, sliced tomatoes, and Buttermilk Cucumber Salad. You’ll also find Skillet Fried Chicken and Milk Gravy, Fried Apples, Buttermilk Brown Sugar Pie, and Colin Perry’s Sorghum and Apple Sticky Pudding. All the recipes come with a story and a place in time in this pocket of the country. 

Now that our weather has cooled off, I was ready for a good, comfort food kind of dish that makes use of fresh greens. I brought home a pretty bunch of kale from Boggy Creek Farm to make the Kale Potato Cakes. Yukon Golds were peeled, quartered, and boiled until tender. Meanwhile, the kale was washed, stemmed, and chopped. The kale was sauted in olive oil until wilted. The drained potatoes were mashed a bit before the cooked kale was added. Chopped green onions were added as was shredded Asiago cheese. Four beaten eggs were then mixed into the mashed potatoes. The mixture was formed into three-inch patties that were crisped on both sides in hot olive oil in a skillet. The potato cakes were served with Old-School Tomato Gravy made with sauteed onion, flour for thickening, and canned diced tomatoes. 

The crispy potato cake edges give way to tender, fluffy interiors, and the Asiago cheese flavors them well. The tomato gravy was delicious with them, but they were also perfectly lovely with no sauce at all. I’m inspired to find my way to this area of the country and drive along the mountain roads described in the book. I want to find the artisanal salts being made from newly revived salt mines and taste some of the many varieties of apples that grow there. Then, I want to bring home some sorghum syrup and make that Sticky Pudding. 

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Smothered Okra with Sweet Basque Tomato Sauce and Minted Yogurt

I’m not the only one who’s excited about okra season, am I? It’s such a mild-tasting, abundant summer vegetable, I think more people should love it. And, it’s versatile. Grilling, pickling, stewing, roasting, and frying are all delicious options. It pairs perfectly with tomatoes, and I’ve enjoyed that combination many times. However when I saw this Basque take on that theme, I had to try it. This dish is found in The Basque Book: A Love Letter in Recipes from the Kitchen of Txikito, and I received a review copy. I quickly fell for this book because it brought back memories of our trip to Spain a few years ago. The photos of the market in Ordizia, of those lovely guidilla chiles, and of the garden plots reminded me of all the wonderful things about Basque cooking and the quality of ingredients. The book introduces the basic ideas of Basque cuisine while explaining how some dishes have been interpreted in new ways for serving at the restaurant Txikito in New York. There are pintxos, vegetable dishes, egg dishes, seafood, soups, recipes for gatherings, sweets, and drinks. There are also some suggestions for building menus from the recipes. Some of the loveliest recipes are the simplest like the Gilda which is one of my favorite pintxos. It’s a skewered stack of olives wrapped with an anchovy fillet with a guindilla chile near the top. Also, the Avocado Salad is simply half an avocado with Txakoli wine vinegar, Spanish paprika, sea salt, and olive oil. There are several delicious mixtures to serve on slices of baguette like the Gratin of Deviled Crab and the Gratin of Artichoke Hearts, Roncal, and Jamon Serrano. Another dish I want to try is called “Messy Eggs” with Rough-Cut Potatoes in which potatoes are par-boiled and then fried and topped with fried eggs with frilly edges. And, I’ve wanted to try making Basque-style Yeast Buns for years. Here, they’re filled with a sweetened whipped butter and creme fraiche mixture. Every recipe comes with an explanation of the ingredients or cooking techniques that make it special. For this okra dish, the tomato sauce is the secret weapon so to speak. And, if I can’t talk you into enjoying okra, the sauce would be great on other summer vegetables too. 

To make the tomato sauce, fresh tomatoes were roasted in a 500 degree F oven. I used juliets from Boggy Creek Farm. The tomatoes were cut in half, tossed with olive oil and salt, placed cut side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and roasted for about 15 minutes until charred. Meanwhile, finely diced onion, minced garlic, marjoram leaves, and a dried chile de arbol were combined with a generous amount of olive oil in a large saucepan and cooked over low heat. In my case, I used oregano rather than marjoram because it grows amazingly well in my backyard. The mixture should cook slowly until softened and sweet without browning. Canned tomatoes were crushed by hand and then added to the onion mixture. The roasted tomatoes were pulsed in a food processor until chunky and then added to the saucepan as well. Salt was added, and the sauce was left to simmer and thicken for about an hour. After removing the sauce from the heat, chopped parsley was added. The okra, incredibly fresh and also from Boggy Creek Farm, was roasted and charred. It was first cut into thick rounds, tossed with olive oil and salt, spread on a baking sheet, and then baked at 425 degrees F for about 15 minutes. The yogurt sauce was made with a small bit of minced garlic, chopped mint, marjoram—or oregano, and salt. The roasted okra was tossed with the tomato sauce and served with the yogurt sauce. 

After a nice, long simmer, the tomato sauce developed amazing flavor. I wanted to sit down and dip chunks of bread into the saucepan until it was empty. Instead, it was an excellent partner for the roasted okra. The tangy, minted yogurt nicely countered the stewed and roasted flavors of the okra and sauce. Now, I wish I could walk outside and wander into bar after bar to sample pintxos just as we did in Bilbao and San Sebastian. But, at least I can now create more Basque dishes in my own kitchen. 

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Swiss Chard and Arugula Ravioli Nudi in Simple Tomato Sauce

Two of my favorite things in the world of food are vegetables and Italian cuisine, and they’re highlighted together in The Glorious Vegetables of Italy, which is the latest book from Domenica Marchetti. I recently received a review copy. It’s not a strictly vegetarian book, but almost every dish presented could easily be made without meat. The chapters are ordered from antipasti to dolci with recipes for every course in between. It was delightful to see vegetables in starring roles in each dish and to read about how the recipes came to be. In the Garlicky Lentil Soup, there are carrots, fennel, potato, and turnip, and Domenica explains how she adds crunchy croutons to each serving just as her mother always has. The Crepe Cannelloni with Mushrooms and Zucchini topped with balsamella sauce and baked until browned, looks like ultimate comfort food. We learn that crespelle, or Italian crepes, are traditional in Abruzzo which is the author’s family’s native region. The Smashed Green Beans and Potatoes with Pancetta is something I will definitely be trying even though I’ll leave out the pancetta. The green beans are cooked with the potatoes until completely tender, and then they’re mashed together with olive oil. I already imagine this dish making several appearances in meals this fall. Then, there’s the Pumpkin Gelato made with chestnut honey that I can’t wait to try as well. In the Pasta chapter, a certain recipe reminded me of something I used to make frequently. I have no idea why it fell off my radar, but it had been ages since I last made ravioli nudi. I used to form the pasta-less dumplings and bake them in a tomato sauce. I used to make a ricotta and parmesan version, one version with added spinach and herbs, and even one with a mix of ricotta and silken tofu. When I saw the page in the book with the plate of little nudi dumplings speckled with greens and topped with tomato sauce and shavings of parmesan, I couldn’t wait to try this version. 

This recipe is a little different from how I’ve made nudi in the past since these are formed into balls about the size of a chestnut. I remember making slightly larger dumplings. Also, here, they’re boiled rather than being baked in a sauce. The smaller size meant it was easier for them to cook through without spending too much time being jostled about in the boiling water. And, they’re daintier looking on the plate. The recipe in the book suggests using a mix of Swiss chard and spinach, but I went with what I could find at the farmers’ market which was chard and arugula. The tomato sauce on top could have been made from fresh tomatoes or canned. I didn’t have quite enough fresh tomatoes on hand, so I went the canned route. You could use canned diced tomatoes or canned whole tomatoes as I did. I think I saw Ina Garten chop canned whole tomatoes by snipping them, in the can, with kitchen shears. That’s what I did, and then the chopped tomatoes went into the saucepan with olive oil and garlic. The sauce simmered away while the nudi were rolled and cooked. The garnish is just a quick shaving of a block of good parmigiano reggiano with a vegetable peeler. 

Making nudi is simpler than filling ravioli, but you still get all the great flavors of the mix of cheeses and greens. The little dumplings plump up as they cook and end up fluffy and delicious with the simple tomato sauce. I’m glad to have been reminded about this dish and to learn about several new ones too. 

Swiss Chard and Arugula Ravioli Nudi in Simple Tomato Sauce 
Recipe reprinted with publisher’s permission from The Glorious Vegetables of Italy.

Tender and delicate, these nudi—essentially, ravioli without the pasta covering—make an elegant first course for an early spring or fall dinner, dressed with a simple tomato sauce. They are also delicious served in soup; just boil the nudi as directed, then ladle hot vegetable or chicken broth over them and sprinkle with freshly grated Parmigiano cheese. For some reason, maybe because of their fluffy texture and gentle flavor, these nudi are a hit with children—no cajoling or bribing necessary. 

Makes 4 to 6 servings 

1 LB/455 G SWISS CHARD, STEMS REMOVED AND RESERVED FOR ANOTHER USE (SEE COOK’S NOTE), LEAVES SHREDDED 
8 OZ/225 G FRESH SPINACH LEAVES 
12 OZ/340 G FRESH SHEEP’S MILK OR WELL-DRAINED COW’S MILK RICOTTA CHEESE 
FINE SEA SALT 
FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER 
PINCH OF FRESHLY GRATED NUTMEG 
3⁄4 CUP/85 G FRESHLY GRATED PARMIGIANO-REGGIANO CHEESE, PLUS MORE FOR SERVING 
2 LARGE EGG YOLKS, LIGHTLY BEATEN 
1⁄4 CUP/30 G FLOUR, PLUS MORE FOR COATING THE NUDI 
3 CUPS/720 G FRESH TOMATO SAUCE, SIMPLE TOMATO SAUCE, OR SMALL-BATCH TOMATO SAUCE, HEATED TO A SIMMER 

Rinse the shredded chard leaves in cold water. Place the leaves, with the water still clinging to them, into a large saucepan, cover, and set the pan over medium heat. Cook the chard, tossing it from time to time, for 12 to 15 minutes, until tender and most of the water has evaporated. Turn off the heat, and using tongs, transfer the chard to a colander and let it cool. Rinse out the saucepan and return it to the stove. 

Rinse the spinach leaves in cold water. Place the leaves, with the water still clinging to them, into the saucepan, cover, and set the pan over medium heat. Cook the spinach, tossing it from time to time with tongs, for 5 minutes, until tender. Remove from the heat and transfer to the colander with the chard to cool. 

When the greens are cool enough to handle, squeeze as much excess water from them as you can. Transfer them to a cutting board and chop finely. You should end up with about 1 packed cup of freshly chopped greens weighing between 7 and 8 oz/200 and 225 g. 

Place the greens in a large bowl and add the ricotta, 1⁄2 tsp salt, a generous grinding of pepper, the nutmeg, the Parmigiano, and the egg yolks. Mix together gently but thoroughly. Sprinkle in the flour, and gently fold it into the mixture. 

Pour some flour into a small shallow bowl. Have ready a large rimmed baking sheet lined with waxed paper or dusted with flour. With your hands, pinch off a piece of the greens mixture, form it into a ball about the size of a chestnut, roll it in the flour, and set it on the baking sheet. Continue to form the nudi until you have used all of the greens mixture. 

Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat and salt generously. Carefully drop in 8 to 10 nudi. Within 1 or 2 minutes, they will begin to float to the surface. Continue to cook the nudi for another 5 to 6 minutes, until they have floated to the surface and are puffed up. With a large skimmer, remove the nudi and transfer them to a warmed serving bowl. Spoon about 1 cup of the tomato sauce over the nudi and mix very gently. Continue to cook the nudi until you have cooked them all. When they have all been added to the serving bowl, spoon additional sauce over the top and sprinkle with Parmigiano. Serve immediately. 

COOK’S NOTE: I love chard stems, so if the chard I purchase has tough stems, rather than discard them I slice them crosswise, sauté the pieces in a little olive oil until they are softened, and then stir them into the tomato sauce. 

Simple Tomato Sauce 

Makes about 5 cups / 1.2 L 

Even though I preserve batches of tomato sauce to use through winter, I still rely on sauce made from good canned tomatoes from time to time. Using excellent-quality canned tomatoes and good olive oil is important to the integrity of this simple, everyday sauce. Look for canned diced tomatoes packed in their natural juice rather than in heavy, pasty puree. 

2 GARLIC CLOVES, LIGHTLY CRUSHED 
1⁄4 CUP/60 ML EXTRA-VIRGIN OLIVE OIL 
TWO 28-OZ/800-G CANS DICED TOMATOES, WITH THEIR JUICE 
FINE SEA SALT 
5 LARGE FRESH BASIL LEAVES, SHREDDED OR TORN 

Warm the garlic in the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Use a wooden spoon to press down on the garlic to release its flavor. Cook for about 2 minutes, or until the garlic begins to sizzle. Don’t let it brown. Carefully pour in the tomatoes and their juice (the oil will spatter) and stir to coat with the oil. Season with 1 tsp salt and raise the heat to medium-high. Bring the sauce to a simmer, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer gently, stirring from time to time, for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened and the oil is pooling on the surface. 

Remove from the heat and stir in the basil. Taste and add more salt if you like. If not using immediately, transfer the sauce to a container with a tight-fitting lid and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months. 

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Rigatoni and Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter

I seem to lack the ability to grow tomatoes. I blame it on our yard. The front yard only gets the hottest, harshest sun of the day, and the back yard is too shaded. I have a few cherry tomato plants, but they’re only doing ok. They're certainly not producing record numbers of cherry tomatoes. I’ve accepted that I need to leave serious tomato growing to the pros. One of our local pros is Johnson’s Backyard Garden, and they’ve had an incredible tomato harvest this year. In fact, they have a bulk tomato sale that’s still in effect, and that’s how I came to have ten pounds of San Marzano’s. I set aside a few of them for oven roasting, and the rest were plunged into boiling water, skinned, and then seeded. By the end of the ten pounds, and really ten pounds isn’t even that much, it seemed like a lot of work, but when I tasted the tomatoes it was completely worth it. My first thought of how to use some of these tomatoes was that classic sauce I’ve heard so much about from Marcella Hazan. In Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, she included what she calls “the simplest of all sauces to make.” She also mentions “none has a purer, more irresistibly sweet tomato taste.” She’s right about that. I tasted the sauce so many times as it cooked I risked not having any left to serve with pasta. This is her famous tomato sauce with onion and butter. There are exactly three ingredients plus salt and pepper, and it is a perfect sauce.

Obviously, the better the tomatoes, the better the sauce, and I was starting with those fabulous, fresh San Marzanos. As I said, I had peeled and seeded the tomatoes, and then I roughly chopped them. Two pounds were needed for one recipe of this sauce. The tomatoes went into a sauce pan with one onion that had been peeled and cut in half. Five tablespoons of butter was added, and then the sauce cooked. Occasional stirring helped break down the tomatoes, the liquid reduced, the sauce thickened, the butter melted, the onion added its flavor, and the simplest, most delicious sauce came to be. The onion was removed and seasoning was adjusted before the sauce was used. Marcella recommends this sauce for gnocchi or penne or rigatoni. I chose rigatoni which was boiled and then tossed with the sauce. On the plate, I added shards of parmigiano reggiano and ribbons of basil.

This sauce could be made with canned tomatoes, but the flavor of fresh tomatoes is so much better. The butter makes them even sweeter, and the onion rounds out the savoriness. I found it impossible to not taste the sauce each time I stopped by the pan to stir it, and once tossed with pasta, the bright, freshness of it was unbelievable. And, the very good news is that I have more of those peeled and seeded tomatoes sitting in my freezer just waiting to be turned into sauce.

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Warm Tomato Dressing with Roasted Fennel

I’ve been eating a lot of delicious, fresh, raw tomatoes this summer. I joked that I could eat caprese salad every day, and then have pretty much done just that. I keep bringing home fresh mozzarella and heirloom tomatoes and plucking leaves off my basil plants. It’s a perfect combination, but I finally decided to change it up and do something else with tomatoes. I had this recipe for warm tomato dressing from Living magazine from last year, and it’s a versatile sauce. It can be made in advance and then re-warmed for serving. In the magazine, it was shown as a topping for roasted fennel, and that’s how I served it. It would also be great with chicken or over polenta or with other roasted or grilled vegetables. I used some pretty, little pear tomatoes but any kind of cherry-type tomatoes will work great. They’re cooked with wine and balsamic vinegar and take on a sweet and tangy flavor.

I have to confess that I didn’t read the recipe very carefully when I was writing up a shopping list. I skipped right over the word ‘red’ next to wine in the ingredient list. When I started cooking, I realized we had no red wine in the house, and I had to use white wine instead. As you can see in the photos, the dressing still became a deep, red color from the balsamic vinegar. So, to make the dressing, the tomatoes were cooked in a skillet with a little olive oil for a few minutes, and then garlic, wine, and balsamic vinegar were added and cooked until the liquid was reduced by half. A little splash of red wine vinegar and salt were added at the end, and sugar was to have been added as well but I skipped it since I thought the sauce was sweet enough. To serve, I spooned the warm dressing over wedges of roasted fennel.

The mellow, roasted fennel was a well-matched vehicle for the tomato dressing, and the reduced and intensified balsamic and wine gave the dressing a nice, agrodolce kind of flavor. Of course, I’m always looking for ways to add spiciness, and I think some crushed red pepper would be an interesting addition here. I’m glad I tried something new because those heirloom tomatoes won’t be around much longer, and I needed to start kicking my caprese habit. And, this kind of cooked dressing could even be made with canned tomatoes later in the year.

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Baked Manicotti

There was a great article in the March issue of Saveur about Italian-American food in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In the article, Tony’s Baltimore Grill and Angelo’s Fairmont Tavern were mentioned. These long-standing, local restaurants were described as now being overshadowed by new hotels and casinos, but "are among the few remaining vessels of the city’s soul." The article included the recipe for Angelo’s marinara sauce, veal parmesan, and baked manicotti. I’ve made all sorts of other baked pastas including stuffed shells but never manicotti, so I decided it was time to try it. I don’t know much about Atlantic City, and I’ve never even visited the state of New Jersey, so I checked in with Stacey at Stacey Snacks, and she told me this:

"Atlantic City has two really great Italian-American restaurants, but I haven't tried them. My Italian sister in law makes the BEST homemade manicotti... too bad my brother divorced her! Here in New Jersey, we say MAN-EE-GAUT. It's slang native to NJ."

I know I can't pull off a New Jersey accent, I still haven’t even acquired a Texas accent, but I had high hopes for making manicotti. I took a look at Angelo’s menu on their web site, and the cheese manicotti is served with your choice of meatball or sausage. In the magazine, it was shown as is with no meat which was fine with me. First off, I made the sauce which was lighter than I expected. Minced garlic, a bay leaf, and finely chopped onions were sauteed in a large saucepan. Whole, canned tomatoes were coarsely chopped in a food processor and then added to the saucepan. Dried oregano joined the mix, and I used fresh thyme because I didn’t have any dried. This was cooked over medium heat for 20 minutes until slightly thickened, and then fresh parsley was added.

To prepare the manicotti, you could boil them for about half the recommended cooking time, but I chose to follow a Barefoot Contessa tip. For making lasagna or stuffed shells, I do as Ina taught me and soak the pasta in a bowl filled with hot tap water for 15 to 20 minutes. The pasta becomes pliable enough to fill and is prevented from being overcooked in the end. The manicotti filling was started by cooking eight cloves of minced garlic, yes eight, in butter. That’s a good start. The garlic was added to ricotta, grated parmesan, chopped parsley, freshly grated nutmeg, and eggs. This was combined and spooned into the manicotti tubes. Next time I make this, I may actually put the filling in a piping bag and squeeze it into the manicotti because the spooning method was messy to say the least. I always think transferring something into a bag is going to take forever so I avoid it, but this time it was probably the way to go. Eventually, all the filling was messily spooned into the pasta, and it was ready to be baked. A little sauce went into a baking dish, the filled manicotti were set on that, the remaining sauce was poured on top, it was sprinkled with more parmesan, and it baked for 20 minutes.

Bubbly goodness emerged from the oven. Since the sauce was just chopped tomatoes with no tomato paste to thicken it, it was light and fresh-tasting. The cheese filling was as good as any cheese filling could be. I will be cooking garlic in butter and adding it to all future cheese fillings for pasta. Delicious. Just for fun, I drizzled a little chile oil leftover from the pizza I made on some of the manicotti. I couldn’t resist using the chile oil and of course appreciated the elevated spice level. Food fads come and go but classic Italian-American food is always well-loved, and now I have one more filled pasta recipe in my collection.


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