Bacon Sour Cream Potato Manicotti With Gorgonzola Sauce Recipes

BACON AND CHEESE MANICOTTI

Steps:

• For the manicotti: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 9- by 11-inch oval or rectangle baking dish with vegetable oil cooking spray.
• Bring a large pot of boiling salted water to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the oil and pasta. Cook until just tender, but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, 5 to 7 minutes. Drain and cover with plastic wrap to prevent the pasta from drying out.
• In a large nonstick skillet, cook the bacon until crisp and brown, about 7 minutes. Drain on paper towels and set aside to cool.
• In a large bowl, add the cooled bacon, the spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, 1/2 teaspoon salt, the pepper, nutmeg and egg. Stir until well combined. Using a small spoon, fill the manicotti tubes with the ricotta mixture.
• For the sauce: Bring the cream, milk, flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg to a simmer in a heavy, medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the mozzarella in batches, constantly whisking, until the sauce is thick and smooth. Reduce the heat to low and simmer 1 minute, whisking occasionally. Whisk in the tomato basil sauce.
• Pour half of the sauce on the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Arrange the manicotti in a single layer on the sauce. Pour the remaining sauce on top of the manicotti and top with the mozzarella. Drizzle with olive oil and cover the dish with foil. Bake until heated through and bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes.

GORGONZOLA SAUCE

Steps:

• Bring the heavy cream to a full boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, then continue to boil rapidly for 45 to 50 minutes, until thickened like a white sauce, stirring occasionally.
• Off the heat, add the Gorgonzola, Parmesan, salt, pepper, and parsley. Whisk rapidly until the cheeses melt and serve warm. If you must reheat, warm the sauce over low heat until melted, then whisk vigorously until the sauce comes together.

LOADED BACON, CHEDDAR, AND RANCH POTATOES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 13X9-inch baking pan with cooking spray or butter.
• Combine hash browns, sour cream, bacon, ranch mix, and 1 cup Cheddar cheese in a large bowl; stir until well mixed. Spread into baking pan; cover with aluminum foil.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes. Remove foil; sprinkle remaining Cheddar cheese evenly across potatoes. Bake until cheese is bubble and lightly browned around the edges, about 15 minutes.

BACON, SOUR CREAM, POTATO MANICOTTI WITH GORGONZOLA SAUCE

Steps:

• Equipment needed: Potato Ricer, Pasta Rolling machine, Mixer, stand or hand, Baking dish, Pot for potato boiling, Pan for sauce.
• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Filling:Put whole potatoes in water and boil until tender.
• Drain and cut in half.
• Put in ricer one at a time and squeeze through into mixing bowl.
• Remove skin from ricer and finish the rest of the potatoes.
• Add 1/4 stick of butter, salt (1 teaspoon to start) and pepper (a few turns of the pepper mill to your liking), add reserved bacon and 1/4 cup sour cream.
• Mix until combined.
• Add baking powder and 1/2 of the milk and mix for another minute, adding more milk if needed to make the consistency to your liking.
• They should be creamy but not soupy.
• Pour into a baking dish and put in 350°F oven for about 20 minutes.
• The baking powder will give the potato a fluffy texture and baking it again will help incorporate all the flavors.
• Pasta: Using a stand mixer with a dough hook works best, but if you do not have one of these, make your pasta in a food processor or the old fashion way, by hand.
• I will use the stand mixer method for this recipe: place all ingredients for pasta in bowl and mix to incorporate, stopping several times to scrape down bowl. The hook will eventually make a ball out of the pasta.
• Pull the pasta dough out of the bowl and knead it until it is incorporated well.
• Cut into 4-6 pieces and wrap in plastic wrap tightly and put in the fridge to rest for about 20 minutes.
• Put a 4-quart pan on the stove with water.
• When water boils, add pinch of salt (adding salt after boil prevents salt damage to bottom of pan).
• Pull pasta from fridge and set the rollers on your pasta machine to widest setting and roll until you get nice pliable dough to work with, then start to flatten the pasta into sheets.
• Lay sheets on the work table and cut them into 4 inch square (or a 6x4 inch depending on the size you want).
• When water is boiling, put pasta in water cooking for about 4-5 minutes (fresh pasta cooks fast).
• If you need to do this in batches, use tongs to carefully pull out the pasta and set it in a colander, rinsing with cold water to stop the cooking process.
• Add a bit of olive oil after to prevent sticking.
• Putting together the manicotti:.
• Take pasta squares to the work station and lay them out to prepare for filling.
• Add enough potato to the pasta to make a nice roll with minimal overlap.
• Place manicotti in baking dish carefully, allowing space between them so they do not stick together.
• Put in the 350°F oven for about 10 minutes (about the time it takes to make the sauce).
• All things up to this point can be made ahead of time and frozen or put in the fridge ready to go.
• Sauce: Heat cream slowly and add Gorgonzola to melt.
• •Alternative: melt butter add flour and cook to a nut brown (roux) lower heat and add milk, whisking the roux to make it smooth.
• Allow the milk to come to temp slowly.
• Add cheese.
• Finish: remove manicotti from oven, should be nice and tender, not crispy.
• Place a tablespoon of sauce on plate and place manicotti on sauce.
• Add a ribbon of sauce over the top of the pasta along with chives and parm (optional).