Adaptation

Last night by the time I got home, cooked dinner and cleaned up I wasn't feeling like looking at the computer to blog about my nice little meal. It was an adaptation on lasagna/stuffed shells/manicotti. The ingredients are mostly leftovers from previous meals and everything is pretty interchangeable.

What you need out of the cabinet:

6 lasagna noodles, the real ones, boiled until slightly tender.
about 2 cups of ricotta cheese
approximately 1/2cp finely chopped onion
about a quarter cup diced red bell pepper
2 cups frozen spinach, thawed
shredded cheese- cheddar, mozzarella, whatever you have
a jar of spaghetti sauce

a touch of olive oil to sautee onion and red bell pepper

1. Let the lasagna noodles cool, you don't want to play "hot potato" with slippery lasagna noodles! Slice each noodle in half, creating 12 smaller noodles.

2. Heat olive oil in small skillet, sautee onion until soft and add the bell pepper until it's softened too. Take off heat to cool. Pre-heat the oven to 375

3. Mix ricotta, spinach and onion/bell pepper in a reasonably sized bowl.

4. Using a small spoon take a heap of the ricotta mixture and place it at one end of each noodle. Roll each noodle so that the ricotta mixture is in the middle, the mixture should not bulge out the sides.

5. The lasagna rolls should make one single layer in a 9x9in square pan. Sprinkle half the shredded cheese on top of rolls, pour about half the jar of spaghetti over the rolls.

6. Bake for 30-35 minutes, sprinkle desired amount of shredded cheese on top of sauce towards end of baking until just melted.

I used what I had hanging out in the crisper and freezer but some other delicious fillers would be-mushrooms, fresh basil, some finely chopped zuccuhini or any other colored bell pepper you have on hand. The red pepper gives a great sweet flavor to the filling. Sorry no picture up right now, just not into plugging in the camera right now. This dish was great with some garlic bread and a glass of beaujolis-villages (a delicious red wine) and great conversation at the table with my husband. Enjoy!