Happy Birthday to Tony! This was made with L-O-V-E!

I don’t know if it was like this in your house growing up, but when your birthday rolled around, that meant you got to pick your “Birthday Meal”.  I can tell you my husband’s —pork chops, apple sauce, Mrs. Weber’s famous Mac & Cheese, and baked beans. BAM! And who says I don’t listen!

Well, I’ve also heard Tony’s.  And Tony’s is a pain in the ass.  He always wanted either homemade spaghetti and meatballs (nothing like rolling raw meat for a good 2 hours) OR he wanted stuffed cannelloni (nothing like trying to fill a tubed pasta and having the damn pasta break).

I decided it was worth the hassle for my dear friend, especially since I will be out of town on his actual birthday.

Our Mangia Memoir (what we’ll remember):

Tony was closing at JCrew and Adam was out of town, so Irmaliz and I decided to have a little girls night in.  I mentioned that I wanted to surprise Tony with a pre-birthday meal and she was down for some fun in prepping it.

I made the spicy marinara before Irmaliz got here, so we could concentrate on making the homemade pasta.  Yes, the old way. We did the infamous dough “well” and used a pasta crank that is older than God. Irmaliz was quite the kneader too.  She even managed to look super fine while grinding the hell out of dough.

It was fun to make everything from scratch.  I’d never made fresh pasta sheets (like lasagna size) before. We usually just make the dough and it turns immediately in to ravioli.  It was pretty scary.  The sheets just kind of undulate in the water, folding and unfolding –almost dancing.  Beautiful.  But beware, when you take those things out, they are hotter than hell, especially when you are trying to get them to lay flat on the paper towels.

Ingredients

• 1 lb cannelloni store bought or homemade
• Spicy Marinara sauce store bought or homemade with addition of red pepper flakes
• 1 lb shredded chicken
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp cayenne
• black pepper to taste
• salt to taste
• small container of ricotta cheese
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup parmigiano
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• black pepper to taste
• salt to taste

Directions

1. Have the sauce pre-prepared and simmering.  Take the cooked shredded chicken and add to the simmering sauce, so it soaks up the flavor.
2. If you are making homemade pasta, prep the dough and let it sit for 20-30 minutes.
3. In the meantime, prep your ricotta cheese with the seasoning above. Be sure to mix well.  Let sit for half hour.
4. If making homemade dough, roll out the dough into lasagna style sheets.
5. Strain chicken from the marinara sauce (be sure to reserve the sauce), then add the seasoning above and mix well.
6. If using homemade pasta sheets, cook in boiling water for about 30 seconds or until al dente.  If using, store bought, follow box instructions.
7. Line the pasta sheets out on to damp paper towels and start assembling the cannelloni.
8. Add the spoon full of chicken, followed by ricotta and roll the lasagna sheet 1-2 times to create a tube shape, then cut the tube from the rest of the dough sheet. Place tube into casserole pan seam side down and repeat for remaining.
9. When casserole in filled with tubes, laddle spicy marinara over the top and shred a layer of parmigiano on top.
10. Bake in over 350 for approximately 30 minutes.