Cheesy Stuffed Manicotti

For this recipe you'll need:

7 or 14 manicotti (you'll see why 7 or 14 later)
2  1/2 - 3 cups tomato sauce
500 ml ricotta
2 cups spinach (or bok choy with some of the white part finely chopped)
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup grated romano cheese (or parmesan)
2 tbsps chopped sundried tomatoes (in oil)
1  large egg
rind of 1/2 - 1 lemon
1/2 cup chopped onion, sautéed in 1 tsp olive oil


Cook manicotti as per directions on box, drain and rinse with cold water.  You may want to toss with a little oil so they don't stick while waiting for you to make the filling.

Sautée the chopped onion in olive oil until lightly browned like this, then cool.

Mix together ricotta, spinach, mozzarella, romano, sundried tomatoes, 1 egg, lemon rind and cooled onion.

Once your filling is made and the manicotti are cool enough to handle, spread a scant amount of tomato sauce on the bottom of a 13 X 9 casserole dish.

You can use any tomato sauce you like.  I used a homemade recipe that you can find here:

http://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.ca/2013/09/roasted-tomato-garlic-basil-sauce.html

Now to fill these guys.  You can use a spoon to fill them.  Or you can use a pastry bag.  I used my icing decorating gun and it worked great! (Thanks Brittany)

I left off the decorating tip so that it would be a bigger opening. 

Fill one end and then the other.  Now here's why I said 7 or 14 manicotti.  I don't like my manicotti packed tightly with filling so I loosely filled 14.  But if you like them really big this recipe would make 7-8.

Lay the manicotti as you fill them on top of the sauce.  Now pour the remainder of the sauce over top and sprinkle with romano cheese.

Cover with foil and bake at 350 F for 45 minutes, then uncover for 5 minutes. Cool 5-10 minutes then serve with more grated romano cheese.