Light Crepe Manicotti with a Beetroot Chimichurri

I haven't tried a manicotti in while. Now it's back with a lighter, tangier twist. I've paired a simple beef and paprika filling with the tanginess of a really altered version of a chimichurri. Beetroot and basil and trust me, it's tasty. Sweet, tangy, slightly salty.

Ingredients

1 cup white flour

1 cup wholemeal flour

4 eggs

2 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

500g Prime Beef Mince

2 Large Onions, finely sliced

5 Cloves Garlic, peeled and finely minced

1 Tablespoon Smoked Paprika

2 Teaspoons Marjoram

1/4 Cup of Red Wine Vinegar

3 Medium Tomatoes, chopped

1 Tablespoon Tomato Paste

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

125g Spreadable Cream Cheese

Parmesan

1 Large Beetroot

15 Large Basil Leaves

1/4 Cup Red Wine Vinegar

1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Pepitas

Salt

Pepper

1 Lime

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 C.

Make your crepes! This is simple. Sift the flours together into your mixing bowl. Sprinkle the salt and drizzle to olive oil over the flour, crack in your eggs. Break all the yolks then add the milk. Mix the ingredients until nice and smooth. It should be a reasonably thin mixture.

Make your crepes nice and thin either in a large crepe pan or a crepe maker. Aim for ten. Stack them up and set them aside.

For the filling, in a large frying pan, caramelize the onions and garlic in a decent drop of olive oil on a medium heat. Once they're soft, ad the paprika, marjoram and red wine vinegar, tomatoes and tomato paste. Keep turning it around until it dries up. Crumble the mince into the onions and stir it through. Cook it hard until the meat is dark brown. Salt and pepper it.

Next: stuffing the crepes. Take each crepe, spread cream cheese in a line in the middle of the crepe. Top it off with a couple of spoonfuls of the meat mixture. Fold it in from the sides. Roll it up nice and tight. Transfer them to an oiled ovenproof dish. Once done and packed in nice and tight, brush with olive oil and grate Parmesan over top. Pop that in the oven for 20 minutes.

Move onto the beetroot chimichurri. Grate the beetroot onto a chopping board. Chop the basil into the beetroot until roughly chop. Scrape into a bowl and mix in the red wine vinegar and oil. Salt and pepper to taste.

Take the manicotti from the oven. They'll be a little brown and crispy on top. Serve them with a couple of spoons of the beetroot, a lime wedge and a drizzle of olive oil.

Enjoy!