I'm currently obsessed with greens and low-fat ricotta cheese. They don't always have to be together, but they certainly are good that way! I had made spinach manicotti in the past, and I had a big bag of mustard greens, so I thought, why not?
One of the first things to do is to get the mustard greens prepped. We always tend to saute ours in a Tablespoon of olive oil that has been infused with garlic and crushed red pepper and some sea salt. That looks like this. Let it get good and fragrant and then put in your greens.
Pile in the greens, stirring them until they wilt. Take those off the heat and run a knife through them so the garlic pieces and the greens are chopped fairly finely (you just don't want long strings of greens). Here, the greens just went in the skillet--they shrink down a great deal (by 1/2 or more).
While that cools, get your dough rolled out. If you aren't making your own pasta, this would be a good time to go ahead and cook the dried shells for stuffing. If you have a pasta maker, I suggest rolling your own dough--then you can wrap the dough around the filling without having to fight the dried tubes that tend to split. Another great alternative? Giant stuffing shells.
If you are making your own pasta, you'll want to cook the pre cut sheets for the manicotti tubes and oil or spray them with nonstick spray before filling. Same goes for the dried tubes.
For two servings, I threw the cooked greens in a bowl with about half a chopped bell pepper and some sliced mushrooms. Throw in some oregano and half a 15 ounce carton of low fat ricotta, along with 2 T. grated parmesan cheese. I also made a basic marinara sauce, but you could either use left over or jarred sauce. The picture to the right is my starter for my sauce--onions and shrooms (there was probably more garlic in that round, too). Saute that for a bit with oregano and fennel seed and then throw in some whizzed up tomatoes (drain the juice off a 28 ounce can, pulse the tomatoes in a food processor to slightly chunky). Pour in the tomatoes and some wine and simmer until it's ready to go--30 minutes is probably good.
Pour just a thin film of the marinara in the bottom of your chosen dish for baking. Put in your filled manicotti, top with sauce and cheese (see the first pic) and bake until bubbly and just beginning to brown on top.
I know this is not an exact recipe, but Mom asked me about it, and I've not had time to make it again yet and do full on measurements for a four portion dish. Mom's a pretty smart cookie, and I bet she can do it even better than I did with the details here.