Basic Manicotti
This is a basic cheese filled and baked manicotti. I did not boil the noodles first, I filled them dry and they cooked in the sauce. Link to the shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 1 box manicotti shells, (14 shells)
- 3 cups Ricotta cheese, or cottage cheese, (24 oz / 1 lb 8 oz / 680 g)
- 250 grams Mozzarella Cheese, shredded, (8 oz)
- 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- 2 eggs, chicken or duck
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- salt and pepper, as desired, to taste
- 4 cups spaghetti sauce, Shortcut
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, add the all the Ricotta, Mozzarella, and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, eggs, parsley, salt and pepper. Mix together.
- Preheat your oven to 180 C (350 F) and get out a 9x13 baking dish. Add 1 cup of spaghetti sauce to the bottom of the baking dish and make sure it is spread out.
- Using either a piping bag with a nozzle that will fit inside the end of a manacotti shell, or a small spoon that will fit inside (this is the method I used), pipe the cheese filling into a dry manicotti shell or fill with a small spoon, and place that into the baking dish. Continue to fill shells and arrange in the baking dish.
- Top with remaining spaghetti sauce and sprinkle on the remaining Parmesan cheese.
- As a Variant, sprinkle with some shredded Mozzarella cheese then top with slices of Provolone cheese (recommended and is the method I used).
- Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 15 minutes more.
- Serve and enjoy.
Notes
I will price this when I make it the first time to sort out the ingredient amounts. For now I will say Low cost per serving.
Shortcut: Spaghetti Sauce.
Variants: 1. Add onion and or garlic powder to the filling. 2. Add 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg to the filling. 3. Add 1/4 cup Marscapone cheese to the filling. 4. Use a Alfredo sauce instead of a tomato sauce. 5. Sprinkle some shredded Mozzarella cheese on top of the sauce and top that with sliced Provolone (highly recommended).
Adapted from an internet recipe.