Here is something to make that recipe even faster and less messy. I don't cook any pasta that is going into a crockpot or oven. Make sure you have enough sauce and it will cook itself. I make the same thing in a crockpot, but use rigitoni and cook it on low for at least 4 hours depending on how soft you like your macaroni. Stir the crockpot after two hours to make sure that all the pasta is covered. You can add cooked ground beef or loose sausage to your sauce for more flavor and skip the nutmeg. Make enough extra sauce to add when served if you want more.
This is a great idea if you don't have manicotti on-hand or don't want to stuff them. I used bow ties instead of ziti because that's what we had in the pantry but almost any kind of small pasta should work. To spice up the sauce add 1/2 teaspoon ground marjoram 1/2 teaspoon ground thyme 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1 bay leaf 1/2 teaspoon sugar 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper and 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more to taste). I used 1 teaspoon salt instead of 1/2 teaspoon. Alternatively you can add about 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning instead of the basil marjoram thyme and oregano (more or less to taste). Add 1 small can mushrooms to the sauce. Remove the bay leaf before assembling. Top the entire dish with a sprinkle of grated mozzarella cheese about ten minutes before it's ready. Add grated parmesan cheese on top after plated. Serve with caesar salad and garlic bread.
Excellent recipe -- wonderful manicotti flavor. I used penne pasta -- no problem and skipped the nutmeg. I did bake 45 mins as others suggested. Finally: Two great tips... Skip Step 2 and just use jar chunky spaghetti sauce. Makes it much faster. I was a little short on ricotta so I just added sour cream to make the amount called for. This was a great recipe for when I needed to do a big grocery shop the next day.
I love love love this recipe. I've made it several times and my husband who thinks that all meals should include meat raves about it. Even my finicky mother-in-law who likes to believe she's the only one in the family who can cook couldn't say anything bad about it.
Used whole wheat pasta and powdered garlic and canned spagetti sauce - half sundried tomato alfredo and half 4 cheese. Also added a little milk lemon juice and some feta cheese to the cheese. Chopped up some spinach and cooked it with the onions too. Very yummy I had seconds and will make this again for sure.
Very good. Maybe it was the nutmeg? The nutmeg and the garlic?
This is one of my favorite recipes. I use a jar of my father's canned tomatoes and it's just perfect. This dish tastes even better the next day so it would be a great dish to make ahead & freeze for later.
To my astonishment even my extremely fussy eaters enjoyed this recipe. I did find though that I needed to increase the baking time to about 40 - 45 minutes so that the casserole would heat through - may be attributed to the style of baking dish I used.
I thought this was a great dish.
I followed the recipe alomst exactly except my package of noodles was a couple ounces larger but the nutmeg taste completely overwhelmed the whole taste. It took me about 45 minutees to bake as and like another reviewer I felt something was lacking perhaps another kind of cheese added would imporve the texture. I really wanted to like this one too...
