Chicken, Spinach and Mushroom Manicotti

By sschwartz

Ingredients

• 1 (8 oz) box manicotti tubes
• 1 pound ground chicken
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch red pepper flakes
• 1 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
• 8 oz baby bella mushrooms, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 oz baby spinach
• 3/4 cup ricotta cheese (roughly, whatever you want)
• 2 Tbs. fresh parsley, plus more for garnish
• 2 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Details

Servings 4
Adapted from bevcooks.com

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 400.

Fill up a 9 x 13 dish with warm water. Place the manicotti tubes in there and just let ‘em hang while you prepare everything else. They won’t be super soft, but it just gets them in the mindset, ya know?

Bring a large skillet to a medium-high heat. Add the ground chicken to the pan and season with a good pinch of salt, pepper, the ground cinnamon and crushed red pepper. Brown all over, about 7 minutes. Remove from the skillet and set aside.

Back in the skillet, add a Tbs. 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 to wilt, maybe 2 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine the chicken, spinach and mushroom mixture with the ricotta cheese 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.

Drain the water from the baking dish and wipe clean with a paper towel. Pour about 1/2 cup of the creamy tomato sauce along the bottom of the baking dish.

Stuff each tube with the ricotta mixture and arrange them in the dish. Once all stuffed, pour the rest of the tomato sauce over the manicottis. Cover and bake 30 minutes.

Let rest about 5 minutes. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrright.

Serve garnished with parsley and freshly grated parmesan!