Crab Manicotti with Spinach Cream Sauce

This is a comfort dish to the max. Stuffed manicotti is a great dish that has many varieties and I bumped it another level by adding fresh lump crab meat to the filling. The crab is delicious with the creamy sauce and it's sure to impress anyone you make it for!

Ingredients:

28 Manicotti shells
1 onion, finely diced
3 celery stalks, fined diced
2 garlic cloves, finely diced
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 egg
8 oz. fresh lump crab meat
2 cups mozzarella cheese
1 cup thawed spinach, drained
4 tbspn unsalted butter
5 tbspn flour
2 cups 2% milk
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
extra virgin olive oil
nonstick cooking spray
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add the manicotti shells.Cook until al dente and pull out, set shells aside.

In a nonstick skillet, saute the onion and celery in some olive oil over medium heat. Cook until translucent, about 8 minutes. Add garlic, salt, and pepper and cook for another minute. Set aside.

Make the cream sauce. Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium and add the flour. Cook the flour for a couple minutes and then whisk in the milk, increase the heat to medium-high. Whisk until the sauce thickens, about 6 or 7 minutes. Add the spinach, the rest of the mozzarella cheese, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

In a bowl, mix the ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup of the mozzarella cheese, egg, crab meat, and about 1 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper. Once the sauteed vegetables have cooled a little, add to the mixture as well. Stuff the manicotti with the crab filling and lay in a 15x10x2 inch dish sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.

Once all the manicotti are filled, pour the cream sauce over the shells and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Bake for 20 minutes and then broil for about 5 minutes to get a golden and bubbly crust on top.