Manicotti

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Sauce first –

Follow the instructions on the sausage link package to cook the links, or…

Put the Italian sausage links in a small glass baking dish, and add water until the sausages are about half covered.

Stick them in the pre-heated oven. You’ll want to check on them from time to time while you’re making the sauce.

When the tops have browned a bit, turn them over and let the other side brown. They should be done when all the water has evaporated.

Boil some water and cook the manicotti shells as directed on the package. You want them slightly undercooked.

(skip this part if you’re using entirely store bought sauce or your own sauce recipe)

In a skillet, heat a little olive oil, about a tablespoon. Saute the onions and garlic until just soft.

Add the mushrooms and continue cooking until the mushrooms are cooked through.

Transfer this to a large saucepan, and add the pasta sauce. Add basil, oregano, salt, and pepper to taste (and any other spices you feel like throwing in… but make sure you taste it as you go!)

(stop skipping here)
Bring the sauce up to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat and let the sauce simmer while you’re stuffing the shells. When the sausage links are cooked, slice them into bitesize pieces and dump them in the sauce.

Filling next –

In a large bowl, combine all the filling ingredients. Its easiest to just mash it all up with your hands instead of trying to mix it with a utensil. Easy!

Putting it all together –

Drain and dry off your manicotti shells. You don’t want them to stick together while you’re filling the others, so spread them out on a paper towel.

Extract about 1 cup of sauce from your saucepan. By extract, I mean try to get a cup of sauce without sausage or mushrooms. Spread the extracted sauce on the bottom of a 13x9x2 glass baking dish.

Carefully fill the pasta shells with the cheese mixture. If you break one, you can use the cheese as glue! It is easiest to use your hands for this, but if you are a wuss, you can also use a spoon. Place the shells on top of the sauce layer in the baking dish. You will probably have some cheese mixture left over, and this is ok!

After the shells are filled, cover them with the remaining sauce, and all the chunky goodness it contains. Spread the remaining cheese mixture over the top of the sauce. Top with more Parmesan if you like. Cover the dish with foil and stick it in the oven. (If your baking dish is pretty full, you may want to put it on a cookie sheet to keep your oven from getting messy.)

Bake for 40 minutes, until hot and bubbly. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes, or until the cheesy topping is thoroughly melty. Serve with your favorite garlic bread.