Wow, this manicotti is super! I did not boil the manicotti because it breaks too easily. Filling them while they are raw is fine...just make sure the manicotti "rests" in the sauce for at least a few hours before cooking so it absorbs some of the moisture from the sauce. I followed ingredients almost exactly, except I added a large can of crushed tomatoes in addition to the spaghetti sauce and I added a teaspoon of garlic salt and a dash of italian seasoning to the cheese mixture. Adding a can of crushed tomatoes gives it more of a homemade taste and more moisture because Prego / Ragu tends to tast a little processed. Adding the garlic salt and italian seasoning gave the cheese more flavor. Anyway, it came out great! Very creamy and flavorful. I also made sure to use good quality fresh grated Parmesan...none of that green can stuff! Definitely a keeper! P.S. I would NOT recommend adding an egg to the mixture...unless you want ricotta cheese that has scrambled egg consistancy! This mixture stays together fine without it, so don't add it!!!
To take the bland out forget the egg and add garlic cloves that have been oven roasted (makes a big difference) crushed and blended well with cheese mixture. Also replace the parsley with double the amount of fresh spinish and place slices of Itialian sausage around the pasta than cover with sauce and bake as instructed.
This is the best recipe I have ever gotten from allrecipes. I loved it and my family has told me to make part of our regular menu. I have made it several times since. The recipe is perfect the way it is so you dont need to make any changes.
My hubby volunteered me to make manicotti for the potluck lunch at his job during the holidays. He assumed because I am part Italian I knew how to make it even though in the 13 years we've been together never once had I made it for him. Thank the lord for this recipe. It was easy to follow although stuffing the shells can be very tricky! LOL!! Everyone at my hubby's work raved about these and I have passed the recipe on! Thanx so much for saving me! LOL!!
I made it for a fund-raiser dinner and it got great reviews! I really appreciated the comment someone added about stuffing them before they were cooked. I used a one of my frosting decorating bags and it was easy.
This is a great base recipe you can add anything you like to the filling per your taste. If your worried about the egg leave it out it will be fine. A easy trick to filling this pasta take a plastic storage freezer bag and put the filling inside then snip the tip off and use like you would a pastry bag. You can toss it when your done and almost everyone has these on hand. Very simple recipe thank you for it!
I just made this today and it was very easy to make and I think it came out great and next time I make it I would add some stuff to it as others have done. I also agree that there is No need to add the egg.
Very good! I left out the parsely and added fresh basil to the cheese mixture. I only boiled the noodles for 6 minutes so that they would stand up to being stuffed. They were perfectly cooked by the end of baking. I didn't have enough mixture to stuff all of the pasta, though. I had 4 tubes left over. I didn't use whole milk ricotta or mozz... I used part skim to save a few calories. Finally, 3 and a half 32-ounce jars of pasta sauce is entirely too much! I used 2 26-ounce jars of pasta sauce and it was still too much... and I like my pasta saucey! All in all this was a nice change from lasagna or spaghetti. I added ground beef and zucchini to the sauce to make it a little more hearty. Thanks for posting!
Followed exact recipe! Excellent! Thanks!
This was an average recipe. Nothing bad but nothing spectacular. It seemed like it was missing something. I probably won't make it again and I'll keep looking for another manicotti recipe.
