White chicken lasagna rolls

This recipe is from the saving dinner basics book I have out from the library.  It was pretty good.  There was a sweetness about the filling that I really liked.  I can only figure it came from the croutons.  I really wished I would have just bought shells to stuff.  Would have been easier than manicotti, but it was ok.  It did not have any sort of sauce, and that for me was sadly lacking.  I took one bite and it was definitely missing something.  I defrosted a sauce and put on the top of this and then it was good.  Brandon says it was a sauce that was given to us, but I really think it was just frozen pizza sauce.  Whatever it was, it made this plenty tasty.  I did have extra filling, but my package of manicotti only had 14 or 16 shells and it called for 18.

Here is how I made it.

Ingredients

• 1 package manicotti noodles - or jumbo pasta shells
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 can petite diced tomatoes
• 1 stalk celery, finely chopped 
• 3 carrots (mine were medium small), finely chopped (I tossed my celery and carrots in the food processor)
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 cups 
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 1 1/2 15 oz. containers ricotta cheese.  
• 1 1/2 cup seasoned croutons (Mine were large and I couldn't imagine stuffing them in manicotti shells so I tossed these in the food processor to chop into smaller bits.  I had small bits and crumbs.)

Directions

1. Cook noodles according to package directions, drain.
2. Preheat oven to 400.  Grease a 9 X 13 pan.
3. Heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat.  Cook celery, carrots, tomatoes and garlic in oil for 5-7 minutes or until crisp-tender.  Stir in chicken and broth.  Cook 5 minutes or until broth is evaporated.  (I actually kept adding broth because I was slowly adding the chicken and it kept evaporating faster than I wanted it to.)  
4. Stir remaining ingredients into chicken mixture.  Fill cooked noodles.  Set in baking pans.  Bake uncovered 10 minutes.  Serve with sauce.  

Try this pizza sauce super simple to whip up while the chicken is in the oven.  Then heat it up.