Manicotti…

Last year I took a stab at making manicotti with homemade pasta sheets. That isn’t a big deal if you use regular flour, but since I had to make gluten-free pasta, my sheets fell apart. 

When life hands you lemons or, in my case, ripped pasta sheets, you make lasagna. Manicotti is like rolled-up lasagna anyway! 

As I’ve mentioned before, my parents grew up in the Peterstown section of Elizabeth, NJ, and I lived in Elizabeth until I was 9. Then we moved Iselin or to the “country,” as my father’s family referred to it. By the way, it is one of the most densely populated areas in NJ, along with the most traffic. 

It is where the Garden State Parkway, NJ Thruway, Routes 1, 9, and 27, and 287 meet. Traffic out the ass is one of the reasons we moved to VT and to get away from my family. A true story there.

Where I grew up, people spoke Jersey or New York Italian, which differs from how others pronounce Italian words. To me, it was normal. I grew up speaking this way; when I moved to VT, no one had a damn clue what I was “tawking” about. 

I found a great read on nj.com about speaking Jersey Restaurant Italian which you can read about here. It’s 💯 so don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. 

For the rest of this blog post, I will write the Italian words the way I say them, so you get the idea. 

I made mani-gott this morning for dinner after belly dance classes. I had a big ass tub of ri-gott to use up and have been craving either ravioli or mani-gott. 

I am craving ravioli because I found a YouTube video that included the one and only Tony Spirito making Spiritos famous ravioli. If you want an authentic experience of Peterstown and the people who still live there, watch this YouTube link. You will believe me now. I felt a little homesick when I watched it. And hungry. 

I decided to use those no-boil lasagna sheets; I had a box of Barilla gluten-free ones in the pantry. This is the time of the year I try to use up the pantry shit I stored for the winter. 

I first made a quick pot of marinara sauce, not a Sunday sauce with meat that cooks all day. 

Next, I softened the lasagna sheets by soaking them in boiling water until they were pliable. 

Then, I made the mani-gott filling. I used ri-gott, parmesan, and moozarell cheeses. I added a couple of eggs, some parsley, kosher salt, and peppers; it had a beautiful creamy consistency. 

After an hour, I put some on the bottom of a roasting pan when the sauce was done. Then, I started making the mani-gott.

Mani-gott are usually longer than mine since I had to turn them in the other direction to roll them up. No big deal.

I used a scoop of the ri-gott filing for each pasta sheet and rolled them up. I placed them in the roasting pan like soldiers.

I covered the mani-gott with some sauce. Not too much or too little. You don’t want your mani-gott to be swimming in sauce or too dry. 

I sprinkled some moozarell on top, covered the pan with foil, and popped it into a 375-degree oven for 30 minutes. I took the foil off and let the cheese brown for 10 more minutes. 

It smells delicious in here. Now, all we have to do is reheat the mani-gott at 8:30 pm when I get home from dance. Mmmmmm! 

Here’s a recipe for mani-gott that is pretty damn close to my freeball method, which isn’t quite as fancy. You can use dried mani-gott tubes you can find at an Italian market or specialty store, or you can use pasta sheets as I did. GF people use the Barilla GF kind. I think the pasta sheets are easier to fill than the tubes. 

This is a perfect dish for Ash Wednesday or Fridays during Lent. This is not why I chose today to make the mani-gott; I just wanted it. My family is lucky when I wake up with specific food cravings since it’s always something everyone likes. 

I pulled the mani-gott out of the oven and let it cool for a bit. I took one for the team and carefully pried the first one out of the pan (the first one is the hardest to get out) for a photo; ok for a “little taste.” Was it good? Forgetaboutit! 

Have a great day; we are already halfway through the week. 😉