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Equipment needed: Potato Ricer, Pasta Rolling machine, Mixer, stand or hand, Baking dish, Pot for potato boiling, Pan for sauce.
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Preheat oven to 350u00b0F.
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Filling:Put whole potatoes in water and boil until tender.
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Drain and cut in half.
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Put in ricer one at a time and squeeze through into mixing bowl.
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Remove skin from ricer and finish the rest of the potatoes.
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Add 1/4 stick of butter, salt (1 teaspoon to start) and pepper (a few turns of the pepper mill to your liking), add reserved bacon and 1/4 cup sour cream.
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Mix until combined.
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Add baking powder and 1/2 of the milk and mix for another minute, adding more milk if needed to make the consistency to your liking.
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They should be creamy but not soupy.
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Pour into a baking dish and put in 350u00b0F oven for about 20 minutes.
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The baking powder will give the potato a fluffy texture and baking it again will help incorporate all the flavors.
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Pasta: Using a stand mixer with a dough hook works best, but if you do not have one of these, make your pasta in a food processor or the old fashion way, by hand.
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I will use the stand mixer method for this recipe: place all ingredients for pasta in bowl and mix to incorporate, stopping several times to scrape down bowl. The hook will eventually make a ball out of the pasta.
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Pull the pasta dough out of the bowl and knead it until it is incorporated well.
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Cut into 4-6 pieces and wrap in plastic wrap tightly and put in the fridge to rest for about 20 minutes.
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Put a 4-quart pan on the stove with water.
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When water boils, add pinch of salt (adding salt after boil prevents salt damage to bottom of pan).
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Pull pasta from fridge and set the rollers on your pasta machine to widest setting and roll until you get nice pliable dough to work with, then start to flatten the pasta into sheets.
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Lay sheets on the work table and cut them into 4 inch square (or a 6x4 inch depending on the size you want).
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When water is boiling, put pasta in water cooking for about 4-5 minutes (fresh pasta cooks fast).
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If you need to do this in batches, use tongs to carefully pull out the pasta and set it in a colander, rinsing with cold water to stop the cooking process.
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Add a bit of olive oil after to prevent sticking.
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Putting together the manicotti:
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Take pasta squares to the work station and lay them out to prepare for filling.
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Add enough potato to the pasta to make a nice roll with minimal overlap.
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Place manicotti in baking dish carefully, allowing space between them so they do not stick together.
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Put in the 350u00b0F oven for about 10 minutes (about the time it takes to make the sauce).
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All things up to this point can be made ahead of time and frozen or put in the fridge ready to go.
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Sauce: Heat cream slowly and add Gorgonzola to melt.
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Alternative: melt butter add flour and cook to a nut brown (roux) lower heat and add milk, whisking the roux to make it smooth.
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Allow the milk to come to temp slowly.
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Add cheese.
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Finish: remove manicotti from oven, should be nice and tender, not crispy.
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Place a tablespoon of sauce on plate and place manicotti on sauce.
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Add a ribbon of sauce over the top of the pasta along with chives and parm (optional).
