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1
Steam spinach for a few minutes, shock in ice water, drain, squeeze water out and chop.
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2
Mix spinach and half of the mozzarella into the ricotta cheese.
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3
Add the eggs and parsley and mix well.
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4
Saute the shallots in the oil, cool down and add to the filling mixture.
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5
Season with finely ground black pepper and nutmeg.
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6
Put the filling into a gallon-sized baggie and chill the filling for an hour.
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7
Spread 2 cups of your favorite marinara sauce (use recipe #443284) (Steam the spinach lightly, plunge into ice water to preserve the color, drain well and squeeze dry.
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8
Chop it finely.)
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9
into the bottom of a 13 x 9 baking pan which is greased or sprayed.
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10
If your sauce is thick you can thin it with a little bit of water.
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11
(refined sauce works best rather than chunky sauce).
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12
Fill the uncooked manicotti tubes with the ricotta mixture.
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13
Cut a corner of the plastic bag off and squirt the filling from the center of the tube to the outside.
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14
Do it this way from both ends of the tube to make it full and trust me it's easier this way.
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15
Line the filled tubes up in your pan.
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16
Cover with remaining sauce and sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella cheese.
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17
Cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap (I use Stretch-tite which works very well).
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18
Put in the refrigerator overnight.
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19
Next day leave the manicotti on the counter to come up to room temperature, about 1 or 2 hours.
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20
Pre-heat the oven to 350*.
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21
Leave the plastic wrap on the manicotti and wrap over it with foil.
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22
I wrap the entire pan in foil and then seal it up tight.
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23
Pop it in the oven for an hour.
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24
Check the temperature with your instant read thermometer to see if it's 190 - 200 degrees.
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25
Remove it from the oven and if you like the top a little crunchy just unwrap the foil and the plastic and pop it back into the oven for 10 or 15 minutes.
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26
Rest for 15 minutes before serving.
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27
There ya go!
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28
Mangia!
