Baked Manicotti

"Found this one on Allrecipes.com and tweaked the ingredients just a bit to fit the picky Italian DH. Ground sausage as opposed to ground beef gives the dish much more flavor. Do ahead tip would be to stuff the shells the night before, place in red sauce, refrigerate, and then make the white sauce just prior to cooking. Watch the amount of chicken bouillon as it can make the white sauce way too salty. Serve with some garlic stuffed/sauteed artichokes (Recipe #61210) and a small garden salad."
 
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photo by Anonymous photo by Anonymous
photo by Anonymous
photo by PalatablePastime photo by PalatablePastime
Ready In:
1hr 50mins
Ingredients:
17
Serves:
6-8
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ingredients

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directions

  • Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
  • Saute onions, garlic, ground sausage, and beef until meat is well browned and crumbled.
  • Prepare Manicotti shells as per package directions except cut the cook time in HALF.
  • Drain and cover with cool water to stop the cooking process and prevent the shells from cracking.
  • To the ground pork/beef mixture add the spinach and ricotta cheese.
  • When the mixture is cool, add the beaten eggs.
  • Spread 1/4 cup spaghetti sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish.
  • Gently drain the manicotti shells and carefully stuff each one with the meat and cheese mixture; place shells in prepared dish.
  • Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
  • Prepare the white sauce by melting the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
  • Stir in flour and chicken bouillon.
  • Increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring constantly, until it begins to bubble.
  • Stir in half and half and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.
  • Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
  • Remove from heat and stir in parsley.
  • Pour or ladle the sauce evenly over the stuffed shells.
  • Stir the basil into the remaining spaghetti sauce.
  • Carefully pour or ladle spaghetti sauce over the white sauce, trying to layer the sauces without mixing.
  • Cover and bake for 40 minutes.
  • Remove from oven, uncover and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
  • Bake, uncovered, for 10 minutes more.

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Reviews

  1. This recipe was enjoyed by the family but I did not receive the compliments that I had hoped for. I halfed the recipe & had a fair amount of stuffing leftover. Which I will try to use up this week. I found the sauce to be heavier then expected. I was thinking that with the white sauce it would have been lighter so maybe it was the richness of the dish that gave it a heaviness. I will make this again but will serve a smaller amount with 2 very "light" side dishes. Thank you for the recipe Chippie.
     
  2. DELICIOUS! INCREDIBLE! The Italian in me was drooling! Iwent with Sue L.'s double idea and changed the parmesan to mozzarella, and left the 10 cloves of garlic [My family loves garlic]. This recipe is amazing! Thanks Chippie for a good One!
     
  3. Very good,it was a hit for my family. I used 6 cloves of garlic and had 1 lb beef and Johnsonville sausage,1/2 lb hot and 1/2 lb honey garlic( which I wanted to use). That was a perfect combo for us. The sausage gave it nice flavor No guestion , I will be making this often.
     
  4. This has excellent flavor! Very rich, creamy, and yet has a nice tomato flavor. It is a bit time consuming to make, but the end result is worth it. I have found that there is enough filling here to make 2 batches, so I would advise that someone buy 2 boxes of manicotti shells, 2 jars of pasta sauce, and prepare 2 orders of bechamel sauce and do things up in 2 pans, or else freeze half of the filling for later use. I found that the amount of pasta sauce and bechamel sauce used on the manicotti was sufficient and made it nicely saucy. The parmesan was nice (asiago would be good as well), but if I made this again, I might add a touch of mozzarella or provolone cheese on top. I would certainly make this again, and would have rated it slightly higher if the filling had been scaled properly for the size of this dish. Thanks for posting!
     
  5. I followed the concept of the recipe and it was amazing with the béchamel sauce. I didn't want to fuss with sausage casing which I remove on sausage. So I added sage and a touch of cayenne for spice in the ground meat. I made the cream sauce using my own measurements but kept the same ingredients and I have to say it was the best Italian dish I have made so far. Thanks for the great idea.
     
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Tweaks

  1. AMAZING! This was by far the most difficult recipe I have ever made and I couldn't have done it by myself. However it was SO delicious. It had so much flavor! I used beef boullion instead of chicken because that was all I had, also I left the basil out because I didn't have any. I think if I were to make this alone I would have to have everything measured out and ready ahead of time. Thank you so much!
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

OMG I need to update this picture of Chippie :o) He's aged and gotten more into shape over the last 5 years. Stay tuned Chocolate Lab lovers, the very handsome Chippie will return soon.
 
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