Is there a manicotti shortage now? Did all the pasta workers go on strike? I got it in my head, Saturday afternoon, that I was going to make a bunch of mini meatballs to use in manicotti and have a nice Italian dinner. None of the three grocery stores I went to had any. I checked two more on Sunday. One had a sticker showing that there is a place for manicotti on the shelf, but no product.
I decided to use what was in my pantry and put the meatballs in between lasagna noodles. It looked like really lumpy lasagna. However, I didn’t have enough noodles for a full pan of lasagna. So I covered the top with spaghetti and threw some cheese on sauce on top of that before baking the whole thing. It turned out pretty good. As I said, I didn’t have enough lasagna noodles for a full pan, but I had a few left over. So, I made lasagna “flowers”. I rolled them up with cheese and meatballs and set them on their sides. I put a dab on sauce on top and baked them that way.
I’m still on the lookout for manicotti noodles though. It’s become a challenge now.
