Joe - your recipe for the manicotti was fabulous! I especially love the tomato sauce

I'm glad you like it! I have trouble getting folks to try that recipe--I think "18 eggs"

as the first ingredient might be off-putting. But I'm half Italian and don't know how to make small quantities. Besides it freezes well.

The chicken/pistachio filling sounds divine.

 
Not sure if this is sacrilegious, but at our work Pasta-palooza, the manicotti won. AND....

the boxed manicotti itself was hard & UNCOOKED prior to the finished baking.

The taste was very good. In fact, I thought it was home-made pasta crepes. When I found out it was uncooked boxed dry manicotti, you could have blown me over with a pastry bag,

The only variation: layer a cup of sauce + 1 cup of water at the bottom of the dish, fill the HARD manicotti with the cheese filling (making life So. Much. Easier than trying to fill a soft, limp tube), then layer them with more sauce & cheese (but no more water).

Out of 14 pasta dishes, this one won!

 
I must be the only one that thinks pasta that isn't boiled before using lends a starchy taste to a

dish. I have a recipe for pasta with clams and broccoli where the pasta is cooked in the sauce. Dh loves it, but I think it has a starchy taste. I do use the no cook lasagne noodles and don't have a problem with them, but usually soak them for a few minutes in warm water before using.

I can see a tomato sauce would probably mask the startchy taste of lasagne or manicotti noodles cooked raw.

 
You had me at "Pasta-palooza." The event itself sounds like a winner. I have never used the dried

tubes for precisely the reason you cite--trying to fill them after boiling sounds impossible. I'm glad to know there is a convenient way to do it.

Actually, I find it much easier to make fresh pasta in the processor, roll it with my KA attachment, cut the strips into squares, boil, and fill. That's a lot of verbs but it's really easy if you have the equipment, and it pays off if you're doing a lot.

 
Just noticed -

one recipe fills crepes cooked side up, the other cooked down!

 
LOL - yes, 18 eggs might be off-putting. I doubled my usual one, so 10 eggs

2 1/2 cups flour, 2 1/2 cups milk (the original called for water), and a pinch of salt. I ended up with 36 crepes this way. With the work involved, it's better to do a whole bunch at once, since as you said, they freeze well. Friends always like these as a surprise, too.

I've found that the chicken pistachio one does not re-heat as well, the bechemel sauce tends to break on the re-heat. It tastes good, but doesn't look so great. smileys/smile.gif

The tomato and cheese ones help up fabulously.

 
I didn't notice, that - the uncooked side tends to be a bit tackier, so it would

stick better to stay closed. I really don't think it matters too much which side you fill.

 
Definitely fill the uncooked side--it is still soft and blends with the filling. However,

if you are using crepes that have been flipped and cooked on both sides, it won't matter.

I always fill them as they come out of the pan since you can't stack them if they're gooey on the top side.

 
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