Spicy Italian Chicken Sausage, Spinach and Crepe Manicotti

You can substitute 8 store bought crepes if you don’t have time to make homemade.

For the crepes:
I make the crepes in a blender. Combine all of the ingredients (except the additional butter, which you’ll use for coating the pan when you cook them) in the blender, put the lid on and pulse for 10 seconds. Place the crepe batter in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. This allows the bubbles to subside so the crepes will be less likely to tear during cooking. The batter will keep for up to 48 hours.

If you are going to make these immediately, you can make the filling while the crepe batter rests.

Heat a small non-stick pan over medium heat. Add butter to coat the pan. Pour 1 ounce of batter into the center of the pan and swirl the pan to spread the batter evenly. Cook for 30 seconds and flip the crepe. Cook for another 10 seconds and remove the crepe to a cutting board. Lay it out flat so it can cool. Continue this process until all batter is gone. After they have cooled you can stack them and store in sealable plastic bags in the refrigerator for several days.

Makes about 20 crepes.

For the filling:
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Grease a 9×13 inch glass baking dish, set aside.

Bring a large skillet to a medium-high heat. Add the ground chicken sausage to the pan and season with a good pinch of salt, pepper and crushed red pepper. Brown the sausage, stirring as you go. This will take about 7 minutes. Remove sausage from the skillet and set aside.

Back in the skillet, add a tablespoon of oil. Add the mushrooms and sauté for 3 minutes, or until they start to soften. Add the garlic and a pinch of salt. Sauté 30 more seconds. Add the spinach and toss and heat to wilt, maybe 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat and allow the mixture to cool a bit.

In a large bowl, combine the chicken sausage, spinach and mushroom mixture, provolone, mozzarella and parsley.

In the meantime, pulse the tomatoes in a food processor until smooth. Transfer them to a small saucepan. Stir in the cream and lightly simmer. Season with a small pinch of salt and pepper.

Pour about 1/2 cup of the creamy tomato sauce along the bottom of the baking dish.

Working with one crepe at a time place 1/8 of the filling down the middle of the crepe and roll it up. Set it in the dish, seam side down. Repeat with seven more crepes or until the filling has all been used (I got 8 total crepes). Once all the crepes have been filled, pour a decent amount (you can decide) of the tomato sauce over the manicotti. Cover the dish with a sheet of foil and bake 30 minutes. Then remove dish from the oven and let the manicotti rest about 5 minutes.

Serve garnished with parsley, the remaining tomato sauce and freshly grated Parmesan!

Inspired by Bev Cooks.