In this column, Diane Cooper is telling us how to make a really good dish of manicotti.
Diane, her husband Steve and their two children are members of Overbrook Baptist Church in Greenville. Dale Sutton is pastor, and the church is in the Greenville Baptist Association. The Coopers have been members since 2002. Dianne grew up in the church, moved to Steve’s church when they married, but in 2002 they bought the third-generation house of her grandparents and moved there. The house is three doors away from Overbrook, so returning there was natural. Steve is a deacon and has recently begun teaching a ladies Sunday school class.
They have two children. The youngest, Courtney, 19, is a sophomore at North Greenville University, where she is an education major preparing for a teaching career. Their son Beech, 26, has a rare syndrome which limits his abilities. Because of him and others, Overbrook in 2004 began a Sunday school class called Special Warriors. Diane helps teach this class, and other church members rotate for the worship service.
Diane Cooper
Diane enjoys yard work and reading, and likes baking more than the daily cooking. She got this recipe from Shelly Batson, a nursing friend at St. Francis Hospital where Diane works as a nurse supervisor for the night staff. Her friend converted the original recipe to a “heart healthy” one by using low-fat cream cheese, fat-free sour cream, and turkey instead of beef. Diane changed it back, and tweaked it a bit – including adding Italian seasoning to the ground beef to get the recipe we offer you here.
Manicotti today is most often made with the purchased large tube-shaped noodles, but the true recipe is made with shells made of flour, eggs, water and salt cooked in six-inch circles like crepes, barely done on each side. These “shells” (or circles) are filled, rolled into tubes, placed in a baking dish, topped with a sauce and baked.
With today’s busy schedules, most cooks use the large noodles, and from there the recipes change. The principals are the manicotto (manicotti is plural), cheese and tomato sauce. The usual cheeses are ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, or Romano, but other ingredients may be used as in Diane’s recipe, which uses sour cream and cream cheese. Instead of the large pasta tubes or flat manicotto circles, you can also use the large shells in the pasta section of your grocery.
If the recipe makes too much for you or your family, freeze half of it – but Diane says there’s never any left to freeze! To freeze, assemble the manicotti in a foil-lined pan and wrap tightly. Freeze and then thaw it about an hour before you bake it.
We thank Diane for sharing the recipe with us. You’ll be glad you made and served this for any meal, and especially for … Sunday Dinner.
Manicotti
1 large box of manicotti noodles
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
8 ounces sour cream
1 12-ounce package shredded mozzarella cheese
1 26-ounce jar traditional spaghetti sauce
¾ to 1 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon oregano
½ clove garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook the noodles according to package directions, drain, and lay on waxed paper to prevent sticking until cool enough to handle.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix well the softened cream cheese and sour cream, and mix in one half of the mozzarella. Fill the shells.
In a skillet over medium heat, cook the ground beef until no longer pink. Stir in the spaghetti sauce and seasonings. Place the stuffed noodles in a baking dish, and pour over them the sauce-ground beef mixture. Sprinkle on the remaining cheese.
Bake for 30 minutes or until cheese melts.