manicotti

Ok, I think this will actually catch me up for the last couple of weeks.  This recipe is also from my sister Karley.  I really liked the insides of this manicotti because it used cottage cheese rather than ricotta, and I'm not the hugest fan of ricotta  (I'll eat it and it can be good - check out canolli cones - but I prefer cottage cheese because I find ricotta to be a bit gritty and I'm a texture person.)  So, I really liked the middle of these manicotti.  However, I wasn't a huge fan of the outside.  I thought it was a bit salty.  Each of the big boys had 3 though, so it gets a 4 star.   I figure my dislike was just the mix used in the sauce.  I'd like to try these with a different sauce on top and bottom - maybe some spaghetti sauce or something.  Then they would be excellent.

Ingredients

• 1 small tub cottage cheese 
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup parsley (I used fresh, mixed with a bit of fresh basil)
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
• 2 eggs
• 1 package manicotti  noodles (I didn't use 4)
• 1/2 pound hamburger
• 1/2 pound sausage (I used 1/2 a package of light sausage - 6 oz.)
• 1 packet thick and zesty spaghetti sauce mix
• 1 Tablespoon butter (I may have left this out because the sauce packet said it was optional
• 1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 cup mozzarella

Directions

1. Make manicotti noodles according to package directions.  Preheat oven to 375 
2. Mix first 5 ingredients together in a bowl to fill manicotti.
3. Cook hamburger and sausage.  Add onion and garlic as meat cooks if desired (I used my precooked hamburger which I make with dried onions.  I also threw in some garlic.)  Add tomato paste, packet, water and butter if using.  Make according to packet directions.  Fill shells with cottage cheese mixture.  Put a little meat sauc in the bottom of a 9 X 13 pan.  Place stuffed manicotti on top of sauce.  Cover with remaining sauce.  Top with cheese.  Bake for 45 minutes.