About 2 weeks ago, I had Kale Stuffed Manicotti planned for dinner.  Then my daughter became ill, and I made up a quick dinner using some of the ingredients because I didn’t have time to finish the manicotti.  I finally found time to defrost the fixings and make the meal that I really wanted to prepare that day.  The kale and ricotta were mixed together with the food processor, and gave it a vibrant green color, a really bright contrast to the dark red of the sauce I used on top of the manicotti. (Picture does not do it justice.) I think it’s great to let your food inspire you and my garden is something that helps me to become more creative. I take what I have and see what I can do with it.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground lamb

1 ground sweet Italian turkey sausage

1 onion diced

A couple of big bunches of Kale, stems removed

2 boxes manicotti pasta

A container of ricotta cheese

1 cup Grated Parmesan cheese

1 lb mozzarella cheese

handful fresh basil leaves

1 jar Dei Fratelli Tomato Basil Spaghetti Sauce

1 large can (28 oz) Dei Fratelli crushed tomatoes with basil.

Preheat oven 400 F. Cook ground lamb, ground turkey sausage, onion, salt and pepper together, drain off grease.  Boil Kale in water until soft. Drain and squeeze out water.  In food processor, put in kale, ricotta, grated parmesan, a handful of fresh basil leaves and pulse.  Mix spaghetti sauce, crushed tomatoes and two cups water in a large pot and simmer. Ladle sauce into pan (I have a lasagna pan).  Stuff manicotti with kale/ricotta mixture and lay manicotti on sauce.  Keep doing that until you run out of kale ricotta mixture. Pour the rest of the sauce over top of the manicotti. Sprinkle grated manicotti and parmesan on top.  Bake until manicotti is soft and tender.

I used up  1 1/2 boxes of manicotti – 21 pieces total. This makes a very large amount, so you will have leftovers(lots of leftovers).  You can refrigerate or freeze and reheat as needed.  Since this is track season, cooking big amounts saves us time when we have none to spare. I used uncooked manicotti because it is so much easier for me to handle.  I have trouble with floppy manicotti, so I stuff it uncooked and cook it with the sauce in the oven.  This dinner was fantastic, and the leftovers were perfect for a work night reheat and we still have more left over for another night too.