Another one of our family’s favourites.

Keep in mind that Andrea doesn’t really measure stuff.

Ingredients:

– 3/4 lb ground beef

– 3/4 lb ground pork

– 1/2 onion chopped fine

– couple stalks of celery, chopped fine

– some minced garlic

– Salt and pepper to taste

– 1 box manicotti

– pasta sauce of choice

– cottage cheese

– shredded cheese of choice (smoked mozz, caramelized onion, gruyere are all fav’s)

– 1 egg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. Prepare manicotti as per pkg instructions (sometimes you can luck out and find oven ready manicotti, then just remember to add some water to your sauce)

3. Brown the meat with the onions, celery, garlic and salt and pepper. Remove from heat and let cool down just a bit

4. Add egg, cottage cheese and some shredded cheese ( I used smoked mozzarella this time) to the meat mixture

5. Pour about 1/4 your jar or can of pasta sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13 casserole

6. Stuff the manicotti with the meat mixture and place in casserole

7. Pour remainder of pasta sauce over top stuffed manicotti – important to make sure all the noodle surface is covered, or it will get crusty as it bakes (yes, I’ve done that)

6. Add more shredded cheese over top of everything – this time I used shredded caramelized onion cheddar – it shreds beautifully.

7. Bake at 375 F for about 40 minutes covered, and then remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes to get the cheese bubbly and browned slightly (keep an eye on it!!)

8. Let sit for maybe 10 minutes before serving to let things set

9. Serve with a salad and garlic bread.

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