Manicotti Farcito with Fagiolini

Or stuffed manicotti pasta with green beans. Manicotti is basically a large tube like pasta that you can stuff with any yummy things you can think of. You can stuff it with meat, veggies or cheeses but this dish is inspired by my man, Jamie Oliver. In his recipe, he stuffed the manicottis with creamed broccoli and cauliflower with parmesan cheese. I decided to make use of that leftover canned red beans in my fridge and some creamed cauliflower instead, the results were pretty good actually. I did make Jamie’s version prior but the pictures did not do the dish justice. So, I’m just going to put this one up instead

You would be really surprise to see how cauliflower can give so much texture and flavor. You need to give this dish a try by pairing cauliflower with any ingredients as your stuffing for your manicottis.

Here’s how I made my manicotti farcito:

6 tubes of manicotti, uncooked
2 cups of marinara sauce (you can make your own or use a store bought one)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

For the stuffing:
1 cup of cauliflower florets
1/2 cup canned red beans, drained well
1 medium sized onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon of olive oil
100 ml water
salt&pepper to taste
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Method:

Preheat oven to 350F.
1. Chop cauliflower florets until relatively minced, you want to cook it down so the smaller your cauliflower the easier it’ll cook down. Do the same with your red beans, just run your knife through it.

2. Heat pan with olive oil and saute onion and garlic until translucent and aromatic. Add your cauliflower and red beans in and continue cooking for 3-4 minutes. Add 100ml water and let it cook down until most of the water dissipates. Lower your heat.

3. Add parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Cook under low heat for another 15 mins, take off the stove and let it cool a bit before you start piping it into your pasta.

4. While stuffing is cooling off, in a baking dish, fill it with 1 cup of marinara sauce first.

5. Once stuffing is cooled enough, fill it in a zip lock bag, cut one corner off and use that to pipe the filling into the pasta. Place the pasta into the baking dish filled with marinara sauce and repeat until all 6 is done. Cover the stuffed manicotti with the rest of the marina sauce, top it with parmesan cheese and bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until the crust is browned on top.

Serve with a side of steamed green beans seasoned with some garlic salt and you have a complete meal.

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