Sausage-Chicken Manicotti

"Resolve to make at least one person happy every day, and then in ten years you may have made three thousand, six hundred and fifty persons happy, or brightened a small town by your contribution to the fund of general enjoyment."

-- Sydney Smith

The past few week I seem to be in the Italian mode for cooking. When I found this recipe tucked away for a later date I thought I would tackle it for company who love Italian food as much as we do. I served the manicotti with Blueberry-Orange Salad. The recipe was posted December 3 and for dessert made the Tiramisu recipe which was posted January 1. The flavors of manicotti filling and two sauces were quite good and the dish was well worth the effort to make it!

Chicken and Sausage Manicotti

This recipe had a complete makeover! But I did start with one from Cuisine At Home December 2005 I will give cook’s notes along the wayJ

Ingredients:

• 3 large chicken breasts cooked and diced (I used food processor)
• ¾ LB. Italian sausage cooked and crumbled (I used food processor)
• note formula: using equal parts of meat-original recipe called for 4 oz. each of chicken and sausage 
• 1 small box of white button mushroom diced
• ½ diced red pepper
• 1 TB. minced garlic
• 1 TB. Italian seasonings
• 1 TB. parsley flakes
• ½ diced large onion
• ¾ cup grated fontina cheese (I used food processor)
• 1 cup skim Ricotta cheese
• ¾ cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• fresh slices of mozzarella cheese
• 1 container (dairy section) prepared Marina sauce
• 1 container Alfredo sauce prepared (or make your own white béchamel sauce with flour, butter, milk, a little white wine, and grated Parmesan cheese)
• 1 box of pasta sheets –cooked 4 minutes in boiling salted water (what a great discovery for me and time saver since these sheets make manicotti filling so much easier than try to stuff mixture in long shells and they always tear for me)

Directions:

• This dish will be cooked in a 13 x 9 pan @ 350 lightly grease it and drizzle red sauce on bottom of dish
• Cook both meats and crumble in food processor set aside in a large bowl
• In another bowl add fontina grated cheese, ricotta, egg, Parmesan cheese
• Add to meat mixture
• In a pan sauté in 3 TB. olive oil the garlic, onion, red pepper and mushrooms for about 6-8 minutes
• Add this to meat mixture and blend well by hand
• Lay a long strip of paper towel on the counter
• Cook pasta sheets 4 minutes drain and lay each one out on paper towel
• Put ¼ cup meat mixture at end of pasta sheet shaping into a cylinder shape
• Roll manicotti like a rug, snugly but not too tight so the pasta sheet does not tear and place seam side down in pan
• Places fresh slices of mozzarella over manicotti -one slice for every two pasta rolls
• First drizzle red sauce over manicotti, then white sauce
• Bake covered 30 minutes
• Let set 10 minutes before serving

And...this was for the cook!