Manicotti

I love Italian food. We have it at least once a week, and I'm very happy that I married a man that doesn't mind that. Haha. This week's pasta is manicotti. We made this when I was growing up, and I always liked it. I started making it again recently, and I'm glad I did. It's so easy, but it looks kinda fancy cause it's a stuffed pasta. haha. So enough of my rambling, here's the useful info. :)

Ingredients:
Manicotti pasta-usually they come in packages of around 14 noodles
a jar of tomato sauce
1 lb of ground beef
2 cups (1 package of the already shredded) mozzarella cheese

Directions:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the pasta until tender, drain, and let cool enough to handle. While the pasta is cooking, cook the ground beef until it's no longer pink. Drain it and let it cool enough to handle. In a large bowl, mix the meat with half of the mozzarella cheese. In a glass baking dish pour a little tomato sauce to just coat the bottom. This will keep the pasta from sticking or drying out on the bottom. Stuff the meat and cheese inside the pasta. Place into the baking dish. When the dish is full of the stuffed pasta, pour the rest of the sauce over the top of the pasta. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top of everything. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese is all melted and everything is heated through. Serve immediately.

Yum! It'd be great to serve with a salad and garlic bread.