Low Carb Manicotti

Italian-American food has always been a favorite with me. How can you go wrong with cheese, tomatoes, garlic and bread/pasta? And of course, that last part is why I haven't enjoyed anything like italian food for well over a year. I tried making zucchini noodles (they taste like zucchini, fall apart like zucchini and sauces do not stick to them). I tried miracle noodles (texture: rubber band. translucent color--off putting when combined with tomato sauce). I had frankly resigned myself to longer having my favorite savory comfort food.

Earlier this week I had a moment of desperation/inspiration. I had read about people using tortillas for lasagna noodles, but always thought the texture would be oh so wrong. But earlier this week, I was desperate enough to try. Low and behold, it wasn't too bad. I over sauced it, but that was my fault.

Last night, I realized that there is another flat-sheet pasta/cheese/tomato sauce dish that requires less sauce, and a higher ratio of cheese to pasta: manicotti. We didn't eat it much when I was a kid, not when lasagna was so much easier than try to shove a cheese mixture into an oversized penne noodle. But the important thing was same ingredients, less sauce.

Doing it with flat sheets of pasta or tortillas is easy as pie. Mix up your favorite italian cheese combo (I like half and half ricotta and mozzarella, with black pepper, nutmeg and basil), making sure that there is a hefty portion of good melting cheese or a couple of eggs in there to hold the filling together. Cut your tortillas into roughly square pieces, however big you like. You can save the scraps for baked chips or just munch on. Evenly distribute a generous portion of the cheese mixture on one side, roll, and place seam side down in a baking dish with sauce on the bottom. Repeat until your dish is full or your ingredients are used up. Cover with another layer of sauce, top with grated mozzarella and parmesan, and cover the dish with either a heavy lid or tin foil. Bake in a 375 degree oven until it is bubbling throughout, then remove cover and allow cheese to brown slightly, another 10 minutes. Allow to sit outside the oven for 10-15 minutes before serving,

I forgot to take pictures before I started dishing out, and lets face it, manicotti once you start dishing out is not the prettiest thing, so I'll add pictures later. But it looks like manicotti. And it by and large tastes like manicotti. If you have ever eaten whole wheat pasta, you are already familiar with the taste and texture rendered by the tortillas. The nutmeg helps smooth the contrast between earthy whole-grain-y-ness of the tortilla and whatever the opposite of that is in the cheese and sauce. Overall, thoroughly edible, and even delicious.

I'll count that as a win.

~PhysicsGal

NB: this is not a super low carb dish thanks to the cheese and the fruit sugars in the sauce, and the few carbs in low carb tortillas. But its low enough for me for dinner, so I thought I'd share.