Le Fantóme de l' Opéra likes his italano type cooking 
also!  Besides it is RED and that's his favorite color 
of the victims under the Opéra House in Paris. First we 
are going to start out with the basics: the red Italian 
sauce which makes all the rest le piece de resistance! 
  

Fantóme Italian 
Marinara Sauce !!

1 lb. hot and spicy Italian sausage      Olive oil
1 TB basil     1 TB oregano     
4 garlic cloves, chopped or crushed up
1 onion, diced         2 large cans tomatoe puree
1 large can crushed tomatoes or tomatoes
1 large can tomatoe paste      1 oz. red wine
1 tsp. crushed red pepper      1 beef bouillon cube
1 TB or more of the secret (SUGAR)
Fry up the sausage in the oil.  Take the wrapper off 
the sausage first though. Add all the rest of the 
ingredients except the red wine, tomatoe paste and 
sugar after the meat is browned and cook slowly as long 
as you like.  I recommend at least 3 hours! Then add in 
the last hour the red wine and the tomatoe paste to the 
pot.  The LAST ten minutes add the sugar to the recipe. 
It smooths it all out!  You can double or triple this 
for the crockpot.  Enjoy!

Now that your have the sauce; the pasta for a main dish 
meal!

1 lb Italian sausage        1 lb manicotti
1 pkg spinach, chopped and thawed and squezzed dry
1/2 c Italian bread crumbs    1 qt red sauce (above)
4 oz or more shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg    1 garlic clove, chopped

Parboil manicotti till barely limp usually about 5-7 
minutes.  Fry up sausage in olive oil and without the 
nasty ole casing on it.  Put it and the bread crumbs, 
the egg, spinach, 1 oz cheese, garlic clove and a bit 
of the red sauce in your food processor and zap it till 
smooth.  Fill the manicotti with it.  May need to use a 
cookie press if you have one, otherwise a spoon will do 
OK. Layer a small about of red sauce in the cassarole 
dish and place in the stuffed manicotti on top.  Then 
add the rest of the marinara sauce. Cook for 30-40 
minutes in a medium oven (350) covered with foil.  Last 
few minutes take the foil off and top with rest of 
cheese and melt.  Enjoy makes about 10 manicotti.

How 'bout some wonderful lasagna to take to that 
pot=luck at the social event?  Try this out. Methinks 
you will like it.  

1 qt thick red sauce (see above)     1 egg
1 carton Ricotta cheese     1 pkg. chopped spinach
1 lb. mozarella, shredded     lasagne noodles.
parmesan cheese

Cook lasagne noodles till only partly cooked. Layer a 
9x13 inch pan and place first a layer of sauce (so it 
won't stick) at the bottom; then the noodles and then a 
mixture of the cheese and spinach and 1/2 mozarella and 
the egg that has been processed with the ole food 
processor.  Then a sprinkle of parmesan cheese. Repeat 
 layers until noodles are used up. Then put heavy 
parmesan on top and then the rest of the meat sauce and 
cook for 30 minutes covered at 350. Turn to 400 and add 
whatever mozarella cheese is left and let it brown. 
 Eat it.....Try it you will like it. I will put in a 
link to Alka-Seltzer later.....
  
In the mood for someTEX-MEX or some GREEKor New!Southern Holiday Cooking 
?????