Baked Manicotti with Meat Sauce

Today I made "Baked Manicotti with Meat Sauce" from the October/November issue of Cook's Country. It was very similar to a previous manicotti recipe I made from America's Test Kitchen. America's Test Kitchen is a cooking show on PBS. The people that do the show are the same ones who publish Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country. I used to subscribe to Cook's Illustrated but found it was a little too gourmet for me. Cook's Country is a little more down to earth. I do sometimes get frustrated with the recipes from these sources though, because sometimes it seems like they add a lot of unnecessary steps. Every once in awhile I try a recipe of theirs that is wonderful (like Oven Fried Chicken), but quite often I end up feeling like they weren't worth all the work. This recipe falls into that category. It wasn't horrible, but I just didn't love it. The flavor just wasn't that great. And I think some sugar added to the sauce would have been a good addition to cut some of the bitter/acidic tomato taste.

I've decided I like lasagna better. For one thing it's faster because you don't need to soften the noodles, then roll them up with filling. And it just seems to taste better.