This week heralded a week of pumpkins featuring both a savory and a sweet recipe option. As it should! Eating local and in season gives a bump in stimulating the local farming economy and its also just being plain healthy. Keeping it simple and unprocessed as often as we can.
So to end out the punkin’ posts I’ll leave you with this tasty ditty of a recipe featuring my favorite orange orb all mashed up in my Pumpkin Manicotti. I know! Will I ever get tired of pumpkin and sage together? Bear with me friends because it’s highly doubtful.
- 1 (8 ounce) package manicotti noodles
- 3 cups milk
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, divided
- ⅛ cup fresh sage leaves, thinly sliced
- ¼ cup flour
- 1½ cup Ricotta cheese
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt, divided
- 1 cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- Preheat oven at 350°F. Bring a large stock pot of water to boil. Once water comes to boil, add oil and salt water well and cook noodles for 5-8 minutes or until al dente. Drain and rinse noodles and set aside.
- In a saucepan, bring milk to a boil, lower to simmer and add garlic. Simmer for 15 minutes until garlic flavor infuses milk. Remove garlic from mixture and discard.
- In a separate small saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons butter, add sage leaves and cook until crisp. Remove sage leaves from butter pan to drain and set aside. Add 6 tablespoons butter to remaining sage butter in pan, and melt over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook for 2 minutes. Add reserved garlic-infused milk mixture and cook until thickened, about 10 minutes, whisking so sauce does not stick or burn. Season with ½ teaspoon salt, remove from heat and let cool.
- Layer a 13 X 9 inch pan with ½ cup of sauce.
- In a large bowl, mix Ricotta, pumpkin puree, egg, nutmeg and salt. Add ½ cup Mozzarella and mix. Fill a large Ziploc freezer bag with pumpkin mixture, clip one corner with a ¼” cut and pipe manicotti tubes with Ricotta cheese mixture so a little bit overflows on ends.
- Place manicotti tubes side by side in pan, repeating until you run out of shells and filling. Spoon remaining sauce on top of shells, top with remaining Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle sage leaves on top of cheese, cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes, remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes.
Recently I’ve been busily working on a new e-books with some amazing food bloggers, creating original content showcasing their delicious recipes, thought provoking health advice and inspiring photos. Creatively it’s infections to work with such a passionate group of content creators. I can’t wait to share their talents and hard work with you.
But until then….
1. It’s that time of year when we’re all still trying to keep focus on Halloween but tinkering with plans for the onslaught of the real foodie-focused holidays: Turkeyday and Jingle Bells. Get inspiration and start making plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas cooking before the rush (the rush to the kitchen, the rush to the store, the rush to buy bigger jeans.) To add to the crest of the new fallen snow, the next FoodieCrush holiday issue will be coming your way just in time to slightly sing out of tune, “Up on the housetop reindeer paws…”
2. Back to the topic of unprocessed: Becky has taken the 30-Day Unprocessed Challenge and encourages the rest of us to follow suit.
3. It’s American Cheese month and I’m diving in whole hog. Or should I say whole cow. Next week I’m heading to the land of milk and cheese: Wisconsin. That’s where I’ll be basking in the glow of fresh cheese, brewed beer and spirited spirits. And cows, lots of cows. As a cheese and butter fan I can’t wait. It’s a good thing I had a primer last week with some of my fellow food bloggers thanks to the Dairy Council of Utah where we sampled artisnal cheeses at Heber Valley Cheese. Ever heard of Juustoleipa? With banana peppers? It’s haloumi on crack. And I’m addicted. Holiday gift boxes anyone?
4. You thought you could escape the tomato overatures didn’t you? Well the frost hasn’t hit the fruit yet so I’m still clawing at the last vines of sweet, red love. Follow Megan’s cheesey tomato dip recipe, turn on a weekend football game and start scooping away.
5. Did you know October is one of the biggest months of the year for cookbook releases? Congrats to the bevy of blogging cookbook authors with titles out this month including:
Katie’s gorgeously graphically designed food tome
Jenny and Terri who are serving it up mini style
The Muy Bueno gals who deliver authentic spice
Meredith’s pictorial contribution to all things Trader Joe’s ala lunchbox
Jenna’s chronicle of transitioning from culinary student to a grown-up blogger
and Shauna’s collection of vanilla themed recipes that are everything besides bland
I showed you this fashionable family of bacon a few weeks back (poor souls) but I’m sort of falling for Spam this Halloween
6. It’s not often that I give a high five to Fox News but this time I’ll give ‘em a pass.
7. Russell once again clears up any confusion thanks to his latest oh so well designed cooking methods cheat sheet. And get ready, there’s more to come from him in the holiday issue of FoodieCrush.
8. Finally! National retailer West Elm opened this week in Salt Lake City. Yes the store is gorgeous, inspiring and led me to covet about 632 items, but even cooler than the covet factor is this location is the first in the U.S. to partner with Craft Lake City and local Etsy artisans to sell their accessories and art within the store. What a great example of big and little working, and inspiring each other and benefiting the consumer in the end. Don’t live in SLC? Check out the SLC artists and their West Elm wares here
9. Twitter quote of the week: “No one says w00t! anymore. Not that this is a bad thing; it’s gone the way of Ugg boots.” (via @amandahesser) *Oh great. Guess I’ll have to find a new catch phrase. Comment if ya got ’em.
10. Bonus Twitter quote of the week: “I think that there should be a Disney drinking game. Drink every time you see a kid in tears. #bananasummit”via @bakedbree
Happy weekend everyone! Clink!
Thanks for reading and please keep in touch. Subscribe to Foodie Crush and follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest and check out Foodie Crush magazine and Cookie Cravings cookbook.
Subscribe and have every FoodieCrush post delivered straight to your e-mail inbox
Love your lists and love all the cookbooks that are being released this month. Checked off my list so far…the TJs book, Shauna’s vanilla book, Jenna’s book and need to pick up the others…I bet Katie’s is just stunning.
Love West Elm. I have to keep out of it. Big time.
Oh my goodness, I’m such a sucker for cookbooks, and now you’ve added even more to my list! Can’t wait to check these out! Up until now I didn’t think we had West Elm here in Ontario but I just realized there’s a location in Toronto! I can’t wait to visit next time I’m there because I’ve heard it’s amazing!
Sounds like you’re having a great October! I can’t wait to hear more about the e-books too! Awesome!
I don’t blame you for not straying from the sage/pumpkin combo- I feel the same way about sweet potatoes/rosemary! These manicotti look delicious!
That manicotti. I cry.
West Elm’s in SLC? Where is it? Where have I been? Perhaps you need to start a shopping blog as well? Apparently I’m more addicted to you than to what is going on right in front of me!!!
I, for one, could never get enough of the pumpkin/sage combo. This looks amazing!!
Ok this is too awesome even for words – can’t wait to try this!
Mmmm…. manicotti! Fall all rolled up and stuffed in a pasta tube. This has Sunday dinner written all over it.
Be careful with West Elm in town… very dangerous 🙂
I can’t wait to try this, Heidi! Pumpkin and sage together can do no wrong :).
YUM..Yummy…Yum…Yum…mmmmmmmm!
Things are slowing done and I finally have more time to cook, (well, until next week when this baby comes). Had to visit today to get inspired. Mission accomplished. Just found dinner tonight… w00t! 😉
Woot back at you! Can’t wait for you to birth that lil baby!
I absolutely LOVE pumpkin season; this manicotti sounds amazing. I can’t wait to try this!
This manicotti is out of this world, Heidi. Looks seriously mouthwatering!
I adore anything pumpkin and anything pasta! These look amazing!
This looks beautiful and delicious! You have to link it up next Friday at the All Things Pumpkin Link up Party!
Another amazing post, Heidi! Love this round-up and love finding new blogs and sites through your posts.
Have a great weekend; xoxo.
You are convincing me to throw away some old school philosophy (or Wendy’s own bs) of starch with starch. Between this and the pumpkin gnocchi I’ve seen,, I’m inspired to let go and stuff some pasta shells with squash…and I too, love the sage in this recipe. An eternal union.
That pumpkin manicotti looks amazing. I can’t wait to try it out.
I am curious…what do you think is the benefit of creating an e-book? My husband has been encouraging me to create one and I am hesitant.
This sounds amazing and my step daughter LOVES everything pumpkin. I have some extra shells in my pantry. Could I fill the shells with this pumpkin filling instead of using manicotti?
This is my first time i visit here. I found so many entertaining stuff in your blog, especially its discussion. From the tons of comments on your articles, I guess I am not the only one having all the leisure here! Keep up the good work. I have been meaning to write something like this on my website and you have given me an idea.
Finally I found a great post with interesting topic. I have read every points of this post that is really so enjoyable and I have bookmarked your site for get back again here.
Hey there I feel so fortunate to come over your blog you express it in a very easiest way I am very much active person over your blog pretty good to read your blog its quit interesting to read your blog always because it looks fresh all the time.
I want to to thank you for ones time due to this fantastic read! Always has really good posts and topics please keep it up.
The key is to give the peruser a little look into your experience, which urges them to need to take in more by perusing your resume.
This was a great and interesting article to read. I have really enjoyed all of this very cool information.
This is my first opportunity to visit your website and I am really enjoyed to spend time to your blog post.
Hi,your all blog are very useful for everyone, I really like your all post. Thanks for sharing your experience with us and this type of information. i hope you will be continue to this sharing with us.