I think I have mentioned before that my experience with cooking Italian food doesn't extend much further than boiling spaghetti noodles and opening a jar of spaghetti sauce. I do at least brown my own hamburger! Since I grew up in a German family in a town without an Italian restaurant, I didn't have much exposure to Italian cuisine until I went off to college. Now Italian is one of my favorite foods! I specifically remember the excitement of manicotti night at the dorm dining center. Who wouldn't love pasta stuffed with cheese and covered with marinara sauce?
Fortunately, it wasn't served too often. There's no fighting off the dreaded freshman 15 when you are stuffing your face with pasta, sausage, and four kinds of cheese! Sadly, my manicotti days ended with my dorm days. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I attempted to recreate this college favorite at home. And it really only happened because I had some ricotta cheese, sausage, and spaghetti sauce to get rid of. I could have made lasagna, but I decided to try something new. Once I had decided to take a shot at sausage manicotti, I hopped on the internet and quickly found several versions. As I like to do, I basically took what I liked from the various recipes I found and made it my own. And in typical Foodie RD fashion, I had to make it lower in fat! After all, my metabolism isn't 18 anymore!
