July Mystery Box Madness Challenge! Make a dish containing at least 3 of the monthly mystery ingredients.  Three of this month’s ingredients jumped out at me when I read them:  mozzarella cheese, pasta and parsley.  I was in the mood for some Italian food so I suggested a few recipes to my husband and he picked Beef and Cheese Manicotti (page 96) from Everyday Italian by Giada De Laurentiis.  

First you cook the ground beef and onion then let it cool.  Then you par-cook the pasta for 6 minutes.  Mix the ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, parsley and garlic.  Add the cooked ground beef to the cheese mixture.  Fill the par cooked pasta. Place one cup of marinara sauce on the bottom of the pan, add the pasta, top  with more marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese.  Bake in the oven about 35 minutes.  I have never made manicotti before but this was basically lasagna in tube pasta.  It was fun to make something different but definitely a weekend meal.  We made a full recipe to have enough for another meal.  Cook once, eat twice is always our motto.

To see what others made in the group go here.