Monday night for dinner we made fresh pasta. It’s something we should do more often given how easy it is. We’ve had the pasta roller for a couple of years and only made pasta a handful of times. Manicotti is actually easier than I thought it would be, you roll the sheets out and cut the squares then fill and roll.
Pasta dough: I use the a recipe from Food Network that works very well in the food processor. We have the pasta roller attachment for our Kitchen Aid mixer — no cranking. I rolled the pasta to number 5 for this recipe.
Sauce: I made a simple bechamel sauce and added cheese.
Melt butter, add flour to make a roux and cook for several minutes (this is a blonde roux). Add milk and stir well. Add cheese, pepper, nutmeg. Cook until thickened.
Filling: This filling could be pretty much anything you want with the exception of the ricotta which is required.
Mix the cheeses together. Squeeze as much moisture as possible from the spinach/mushrooms then stir in the remainder of the ingredients. Season to taste.
Assembly: Preheat oven to 350° Butter a 9×13″ baking dish and put a small layer of sauce on the bottom of the dish. Cut the pasta sheets (rolled to number 5, full width) into squares (approximately 5″ square). Place 3tbs of filling along one edge of the pasta and roll. Place rolled pasta into the baking dish in a single layer. Repeat with remainder of pasta/filling. Pour a layer of the sauce onto the pasta, sprinkle with a bit of cheese. Bake covered for 15 minutes then uncover and bake for another 15 minutes.