Mary Frey’s Manicotti

Image courtesy of Mary Frey.

Family dynamics play out around the table, this much Mary Frey knows. But behind the meals and other intimate moments captured in her portraits of middle-class Americans at home, is the photographer calling the shots and setting up each scene just so. For an artist interested in everyday routines, it's only natural that her own family traditions come with roles of their own. “It has become a ritual for my sister Liz and I to assemble the manicotti on Christmas eve, occasionally joined by siblings, spouses, children, nieces and nephews,” She shares.

‍

Ingredients

• Dough
  
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup water
  
  
• Filling
  
  • 1½ pound ricotta cheese
  • ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 2 tablespoon chopped parsley
  • 1 egg
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  
  

Instructions

1. To make dough, beat eggs, gradually add flour and water alternately, and blend together.
2. Heat a 7-inch Teflon frying pan and grease it with olive oil. Keep the temperature low-medium.
3. Fill a large serving spoon with the batter, pour it into the skillet and swish the pan so the mixture spreads evenly.
4. When the dough sets, without turning it over, remove the thin pancake by flipping it out of the frying pan onto a platter. This batter should make between 15 to 16 pancakes.
5. Prepare your favorite tomato sauce. Place a cup of it on the bottom of a baking pan and arrange the pancakes on top.
6. Mix all the filling  ingredients together.
7. Place enough in each round of dough so you are able to bring the two edges together.
8. Add more tomato sauce, sprinkle with parmesan cheese, cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake in a 300 degree oven for 1 hour.
9. Remove from the oven and let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving. 

‍