This delicious and classic Stuffed Manicotti is the perfect “company’s coming” supper. Learn my trick for easily filling the noodles.
To begin, start a pot of salted boiling water for your manicotti noodles.
Dice an onion ad mince 2 cloves of garlic.
Sauté the onion and garlic with a pound of ground beef or bison. Cook this until the meat is cooked through and browned. Break up the meat as much as you can with your utensil into smaller pieces while it cooks. This will make it easier to fill the noodles. When they are cooked, drain off any excess grease if necessary.
In a mixing bowl, combine 2 cups of ricotta cheese, 2 teaspoons of basil, a teaspoon of parsley, and your meat mixture.
Add in 1/3 cup of grated parmesan cheese and a cup of shredded mozzarella cheese. Mix these until completely combined.
Spoon the mixture into a quart or gallon sized zip-lock back. Press the mixture towards one of the corners and twist the top tight, just like you are about to pipe frosting onto a cake. Set this aside for now.
Cook the manicotti noodles in the boiling salted water for 6 minutes.
As soon as the noodles have finished cooking, immediately remove them from the water and place them on a non-stick cookie sheet. If they cook too long, they will be a nightmare to try and fill.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Pick up your bag of filling, and with a pair of kitchen shears, cut off about 3/4 inch of the tip. You want to make sure that the hole is slightly smaller than the opening of the manicotti noodle. It is best to start small and make it bigger if need be.
Pick up a noodle, stick the open tip of the bag into the end of the noodle and squeeze the filling in. You can work from both ends of the noodle if you need to. Repeat until you have filled all of the noodles. Place them in an oiled 9×13 baking dish as you go.
When all the noodles are filled and arranged in the baking dish, spread a 25-ounce jar of your favorite marinara sauce over the top.
Sprinkle an additional 1/3 cup of parmesan and 2 cups of shredded mozzarella all over the top. Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes, or until bubbly and slightly golden in areas. Cool for 5 minutes before serving.
Enjoy!
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Stuffed Manicotti
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef or bison
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoon basil
- 1 teaspoon parsley
- 15 oz ricotta cheese
- ⅔ c armesan cheese, divided
- 3 c shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
- 1 box manicotti noodles
- 25 oz marinara sauce, 1 jar
Instructions
- To begin, start a pot of salted boiling water for your manicotti noodles.
- Sauté the onion and garlic with the ground beef or bison. Cook this until the meat is cooked through and browned. Break up the meat as much as you can with your utensil into smaller pieces while it cooks. This will make it easier to fill the noodles. When they are cooked, drain off any excess grease if necessary.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, basil, parsley, and your meat mixture.
- Add in 1/3 cup of the grated parmesan cheese and a cup of the shredded mozzarella cheese. Mix these until completely combined.
- Spoon the mixture into a quart or gallon sized zip-lock back. Press the mixture towards one of the corners and twist the top tight, just like you are about to pipe frosting onto a cake. Set this aside for now.
- Cook the manicotti noodles in the boiling salted water for 6 minutes.
- As soon as the noodles have finished cooking, immediately remove them from the water and place them on a non-stick cookie sheet. If they cook too long, they will be a nightmare to try and fill.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Pick up your bag of filling and, with a pair of kitchen shears, cut off about 3/4 inch of the tip. You want to make sure that the hole is slightly smaller than the opening of the manicotti noodle. It is best to start small and make it bigger if need be.
- Pick up a noodle, stick the open tip of the bag into the end of the noodle and squeeze the filling in. You can work from both ends of the noodle if you need to. Repeat until you have filled all of the noodles. Place them in an oiled 9×13 baking dish as you go.
- When all the noodles are filled and arranged in the baking dish, spread marinara sauce over the top.
- Sprinkle an additional 1/3 cup of parmesan and 2 cups of shredded mozzarella all over the top. Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes, or until bubbly and slightly golden in areas.
- Cool 5 minutes before serving.
- Enjoy!
Nutrition
If nutritional values are provided for this recipe, they are an estimate and will vary depending on the brands of ingredients you use. The values do not include optional ingredients or when ingredients are added to taste or for serving. If nutritional values are very important to you, I suggest using your favorite nutritional calculating tool with the brands you use.
Unit Conversions:
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They look wonderful….sure want to try this one too…
Leaving you a pm in FB (later this eve. :) Re: your recipes !!
Maybe I added too much sauce last time, as they turned out quite squishy… Do you also recommend using bechamel sauce, or we can omit it?
Hi Amber, I don’t use a bechamel sauce with the manicotti. I find that the jar of sauce alone is plenty. Another tip is to make sure you don’t cook the manicotti too much. They should still be kind of firm when you fill them. They will absorb some of the moisture from the sauce while it bakes, and if they are too close to fully cooked, they will get overly soft. Hope that helps!