Practically Painless (and 100% meatless!) Manicotti

I've wanted to make manicotti for a long time! To be honest, I've had it at restaurants and always thought it was a bit boring/I could make it a whole lot better at home! Guess what?! You can, and it really doesn't have to be a huge PITA! ;) This is based on a recipe from Cooking Light which uses uncooked manicotti.

I made two versions of it for dinner on Friday night - one meatless for myself and one with a filling similar to the sausage stuffed shells that DH likes. This one is the vegetarian version; meaty version coming soon! Believe it or not, this is fairly low-fat (original recipe had 9 grams - mine was probably right around there).

Serves 1

Ingredients:
1/8 part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup fat-free cottage cheese
1/4 cup spinach (I used frozen spinach that I thawed - I originally put 1/2 cup in my manicotti but I have decided that I was a bit too much so I've cut it back to 1/4 cup)
1/16 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1/8 tsp. dried oregano
Sprinkle of red pepper flakes
1 tsp. dried parsley
A little salt and black pepper
1 small clove of garlic, minced
2 manicotti shells
Marinara sauce (I used home-made red wine marinara)
1/4 cup water

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine the mozzarella, cottage cheese, spinach, Parmesan, oregano, parsley, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper in a bowl. Spoon the cheese mixture into the uncooked manicotti shells.

3. Pour some marinara sauce into a baking dish. Arrange the stuffed pasta shells in a single layer over the sauce. Top the shells with the remaining sauce. Pour 1/4 cup water into the dish. Sprinkle a little additional mozzarella over the sauce. Cover the dish tightly with foil.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until the manicotti shells are tender. Let the pasta dish sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Reference:
Based on the Easy Meatless Manicotti recipe from Cooking Light magazine (May 2005 issue).
I really didn't make many changes - I just added the parsley and red pepper flakes. Everything else remained unchanged.