Inspiration

I'm inspired!  I'm inspired by music, weather, good movies, good wine, playing with paint and clay and cooking.

I recently watched Eat, Pray, Love.......again. 

I love this movie. 

It combines so many of my favorites:

travel

spirituality

good food

love.

Plus the soundtrack is amazing.  Neil Young - Harvest Moon - classic!

 

It's Sunday morning and since cooking is my religion ;) I am going to cook several meals to be eaten during the week. 

I arose and was at the grocery store by 7:22 a.m.  The market I go to is an International market and by midday on Sunday it's packed.  So packed that last week I couldn't find a parking spot and had to leave.  I love this market because I can get my usual great fresh produce, but I can also get foods I would not find in my regular corner market. 

Plus.....English is hardly spoken (you hear everything else but!). 

When I arrived, the produce guys were still arranging fruits and veggies. 

 

The meat guys were packaging "fresh" for the day and the fish guys hadn't even begun. 

I needed several things:

• fresh ricotta cheese
• really good olive oil
• small vine ripened tomatos
• good, strong German coffee
• half and half

I took my time and snapped some pics along the way.  It was such an 'artsy' way to do my very regular grocery run. 

 

The first thing I did when I got back home was unpack my bag. 

Let's talk about that. 

I made some of these last year to sell at a Holiday Boutique. 

This bag is covered with cut up food boxes - there are some Uno game cards too. 

The bag was then covered with a laminate type film and wah-lah!  Recyled, sturdy and quite a little attention grabber. 

I have so many cashiers ask me - "where did you get that?"

There, I managed to fit in the "recycle"

part into the blog. 

The second thing I did was make a really good, strong cup of coffee then start to work.

First on the list is the Manicotti. 

 

 

I didn't go off of any one else's specific recipe.....it's that cooking by feeling thing I do. 

Here's my recipe (it turned out excellent). 

This is for 6 filled Manicotti

Serves 2 people

 

1/2 cup fresh Ricotta cheese

1 clove garlic - minced

3 small "orange" tomatoes

2 medium sized Campari tomatoes

3 Portobella mushrooms

6 big, fresh basil leaves

1/8 tsp. dried rosemary

1/4 cup fresh mozzarella cheese

1/8 cup fresh Parmesan

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

6 Manicotti shells (uncooked)

Salt and Pepper to taste

16 oz. tomato sauce - (I used a bottled sauce for this)

 

Cut the tomatoes, mushrooms and basil and mix in with the ricotta cheese, stirring everything together with a spoon. 

Add the cheeses and seasonings (salt, pepper and nutmeg).

 

 

Line a baking dish with about 8 oz. of your sauce. 

Take a Ziploc or sandwich bag and fill it with the cheese filling.  Snip off a small corner and squeeze the mixture into the uncooked Manicotti shells and place in the sauce. 

This fills approximately 6 shells and fits perfectly in a small glass baking  dish 9x11

Pour the rest of the sauce on top and add some mozzarella cheese.

 

Either cover with tin foil and refrigerate until meal time or preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake for about 45 - 50 minutes. 

Keep covered the first 30 minutes.

Serve hot. 



The secret is the nutmeg.  When you add nutmeg to a dish with ricotta, it's automatically "heaven". 

 I learned this from an Italian chef years ago.