Who can resist baked manicotti. The smells from the oven while baking bring everyone into the kitchen before it’s even ready to come out of the oven. There are alot of options and versions to making this special Sunday or holiday pasta. I am making a classic version with only fresh, simple ingredient to keep it appealing to everyone. Using fresh ricotta filling, grated cheese and fresh herbs makes it easy yet still delicious with every bite. I will recommend some easy variations as well along with the recipe.
I like to half boil my pasta with a little salt, before i stuff and bake them. You will need one pot of boiling water, a slotted spoon and a little salt. Allow to come to a boil and drop about 9 in at a time. remove, strain and allow to cool on a plate or paper towel.
I am using a marinara sauce with no meat for this recipe. This is a classic recipe where you can branch off and get creative with so many other manicotti/cannelloni recipes. In other posts I will show many variations that you can re create. Sometimes if I know some of my guests are open to something a little more exotic I have a special crabmeat filling recipe or also a chicken asparagus combo. I think the combinations are endless try some of mine or get creative. Most importantly choose fresh whole ingredients when ever possible. Fresh grated cheese it ten times better than anything that comes in a cardboard shaker, I can promise you that.
Three Cheese Italian Manicotti with Fresh Herbs in a Marinara Sauce
Ingredients
- 12 oz ricotta cheese
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup grated pecorino romano
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1 egg
- 1/8 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
- 2 1/2 cups Marinara tomato sauce
- 16-18 dry Manicotti or cannelloni
Instructions
- In a boiling pot of water add 1 tsp salt and nine dry manicotti at a time, boil half way, strain and let cool in a plate or on a paper towel. Spread them out to avoid sticking.
- In a sauce pan make your marinara sauce or warm it up if you have some meal prep sauce in your freezer. If those two options are not available use your favorite store bought marinara sauce with no preservatives when possible.
- Begin to blend together with a fork, the ricotta, shredded and grated cheeses, nutmeg, parsley, one whole egg, pinch of salt and pepper. Keep blending until a creamy texture is achieved.
- In a baking dish put some tomato sauce at the bottom in a thin layer.
- With a pastry bag or sturdy clear plastic bag with the corner snipped off, fill it up with the Ricotta filling. See the video on how to fill each Manicotti and line them up in the baking dish.
- Lightly drizzle some tomato sauce on the top of each manicotti, sprinkle with more grated cheese, cover with aluminum foil and place in oven at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes. Remove foil, put a little shredded mozzarella on top, place back in oven for 10 more minutes. Remove allow to set for 5 minutes before serving.
Notes
- Optional ingredient is 1/4 cup crushed pistachios mixed in with the ricotta filling mixture, it does add a wonderful extra layer of flavor. maybe try a few at the end to try something different.
- If you know you will not have much time the day you want to serve this, you can prepare it the night before and it will be wonderful to pop in the oven the next day all ready to go, I have done this many times and it is fool proof.
- I always add a fresh tossed salad and maybe some crusty bread if you would like, and this completes this excellent meal.
