1.15.2011

Is Manicotti Passé?

Tonight I'm making Crab and Ricotta Manicotti for dinner, courtesy of Confections of a Foodie Bride.  I have saved the recipe for a very long time (two years!) and I'm finally going to give it a spin.

I used Manicotti with some regularity when Adam and I first got married.  I had a (very loose) recipe that a friend taught me in high school: it basically consisted of stuffing ricotta, grated mozzarella, salt, and pepper into uncooked Manicotti shells.  Place in glass baking dish.  Cover entirely with jarred pasta sauce - seriously, douse it.  Grate lots more mozzarella over it (to taste).  Cover with foil, bake until cooked through.  I couldn't tell you the temperature or timing, as it's been years since I have used this "recipe."  I'm guessing 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

But those days are long gone and now I find myself looking for Manicotti shells for this recipe.  Wouldn't think it would be so hard, would you?  But it has been for me.  Adam looked at Chelsea Market (at both Buon Italia and Manhattan Fruit Exchange) and came up with nothing.  I looked online at Fresh Direct - no luck.  I looked at Eli's Manhattan to no avail.  So I got desperate and, at Eli's, picked up flat lasagna noodles and figured I could wrap them up - almost like pasta spring rolls.

So what's the deal?  Is Manicotti passé?  Is the fancy-shmancy stores I'm shopping at?

All that searching and I probably would have been better off going directly to the closest store in my neighborhood, otherwise known to me as one of the most utter crap grocery stores I've ever known: Key Food.  Wouldn't that be ironic?

Eat, drink, and improvise.

1 comment:

~ lg said...

Oh! Next time I'd love to loan you our pasta maker! Making pasta is easy and fun - and of course much tastier... hope it turns out to be great manicotti!