Manicotti: Italian for Sleeves, Nugspeak for Home

Some weeks at college, you just really want to go home.

Sometimes just I want to be a baby with
a snuggy and manicotti. 

Maybe you have seven papers in as many days or your roommate gave you fleas, but for me it's usually when 1) I'm sick, or 2) the dining hall was especially depressing.

My solution -- manicotti. Just saying "manicotti" conjures up memories of birthdays and holidays filled with cheesy, saucy goodness.

For those of you not familiar with manicotti, it's basically a lasagna burrito. That sounds super gross, so I'll just explain.

CREPES

So glad the house has a whisk.

Your average manicotti uses pasta as a wrapper. We use crepes because they're much lighter, which is key when you're eating something that is essentially a sleeve of cheese.

The batter is easy: four eggs, a cup of flour and a cup of milk, all whisked together. The tricky part is spreading the batter around the bottom of a pan. 

It's hard to take a picture with one hand. But this is the general idea.
It's a tip/swirling motion.

Finito (Is that Italian?)

I know this seems scary, but the whole process only took me fifteen minutes. Be bold.

FILLING

16 oz ricotta, half a block of part-skim mozzarella cheese (grated), a few shakes of parmesan, an egg, salt, pepper.

Cheese on cheese on cheese.


ASSEMBLY

Put little blobby on his bed

Tuck the covers over his toes ... and face.

Then completely engulf him.
(I turned him ninety degrees on the cutting board. Don't get confused.)

I put them in a pan and popped 'em in the fridge, and was all prepared for a super easy dinner. All that was left to do was make some sauce (see Nugget and Bean Make a Big Italian Mess) to go on top.

But then --

COLLEGIATE CURVEBALL

When Bean and I got home, six million freshman were making pizzas covered in weird stuff.  And they had the oven on at 500 degrees, which is a way higher temp than needed for manicotti. But we didn't want to wait because our friend Orangina was coming over.

Solution? Super-quick inferno manicotti.

This confirms my suspicion that oven temperatures are more like guidelines than rules.

 SIDENOTE -- STALE BREAD

It looks like a severed pig head. But it isn't.

Bean and I bought sun-dried tomato/basil bread at the farmers' market. And then we forgot.

To resurrect our carby friend, we sliced it, jammed butter down the cracks, sprinkled the loaf with water, wrapped it in tinfoil, and stuck the whole shebang in the oven.



We were rewarded with soft, buttery, edible bread.

OVERALL MARKS

E for Exceeds Expectations -- I think it's really an O, but the sauce we use isn't quite up to my fam's standards. I'm working on it. Other than that, it's really everything you could want in a cozy, homey Italian meal. Such an under-appreciated, under-used dish.