Blue Manicotti 5.12 Come Home

“I will never, under any circumstances, no matter how short a dress you put on, go back to Al's Pancake World ever, ever again.” “Aw, you didn't like your manicotti?” “That was not manicotti, it was square and flat and blue.” “Yeah. Manicotti's rarely blue.”

Ingredients:

• ½ tsp blue food coloring

• 1 tbsp salt

• ½ lb manicotti pasta

• 1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated

For the tomato sauce:

• 4 roma tomatoes, quartered

• 6 oz tomato paste

• 3 cloves of garlic

• 12-15 fresh basil leaves (or 1 tsp dried basil)

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp sugar

• ½ tsp pepper

• ½ tsp oregano

• ¼ tsp red pepper flakes

For the filling:

• ½ cup ricotta cheese

• ½ cup sour cream

• ½ cup parmesan cheese, grated

• ½ cup mozzarella cheese, grated

• ½ tsp red pepper flakes

• ½ tsp dried parsley

• ½ tsp garlic powder

• ½ tsp salt

• ½ tsp pepper

• 7-8 drops blue food coloring

Directions:

1. Fill a large stock pot with water and add ½ tsp blue food coloring and 1 tbsp salt. Place over high heat and bring to a boil.

2. Once boiling add the pasta and cook for 8 minutes or until al dente (slightly chewy).

3. While the pasta cooks, prepare the sauce by adding all the sauce ingredients to a food processor and blend until smooth.

4. Prepare the manicotti filling by adding all the filling ingredients to a medium mixing bowl and stirring until fully combined and the blue coloring is evenly distributed.

5. Allow the pasta to cool once cooked and preheat the oven to 350 F.

6. Once the pasta has cooled, use a table knife to spread about 2-3 tbsp of cheese mixture into each noodle.

7. Pour about ½ cup sauce and spread evenly across the bottom of a 9x9 in baking dish.

8. Line up the stuffed noodles side by side to fit across the dish.

9. Pour the remaining sauce on top of the stuffed noodles and sprinkle the cup of remaining mozzarella cheese on top.

10. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Then remove the foil and cook for an additional 5 minutes (You can broil the cheese for a couple of minutes instead, but I was too hungry and impatient for this step!).

You can, of course, use a jar of tomato sauce instead!

This is my very first Al’s Pancake World dish. And as you can probably guess, I’ve been kind of nervous to attempt Al’s food. He’s infamous for having some not so great dishes, despite Lorelai and Rory ordering from there all the time. But as Lorelai clarifies, “Al’s food doesn’t stink, Al stinks.” Now we can probably assume that Al didn’t use blue food coloring to actually make his manicotti blue, but I absolutely can’t stand blue cheese (and I don’t even know if that’s what he used either). This dish seemed safe enough to be my first (and possibly) last Al’s Pancake World dish.

What would you order from Al’s?

Line your manicotti noodles in your pan.

Happy cooking from the Hollow!

If you missed what I made last week, catch up here!

Al's Blue Manicotti!