Baked Manicotti

This baked manicotti is stuffed with a three-cheese blend and covered with a delicious Italian sausage tomato sauce.

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword easy pasta dinners

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 1 30

Let it set 15

Total Time 1 55

Servings

Calories 795kcal

Author Elizabeth

Ingredients

1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1 Small Onion finely diced
3-5 Garlic Cloves minced
½ teaspoon Italian Seasoning
1 pound Mild Italian Sausage casings removed and torn into pieces or use bulk sausage
1 (24 ounce) Jar Pasta Sauce meatless (use your favorite brand and variety)
1 (14 ounce) can Diced Tomatoes (we use petite dice)
8 ounces Manicotti Pasta uncooked
15-16 ounces Ricotta Cheese
3 cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese divided (2 cups for the filling and 1 cup to top the pasta)
¼ cup Parmesan Cheese grated or shredded (plus extra for serving, if desired)
1 egg lightly beaten
¼ teaspoon Black Pepper
1 tablespoon Chopped Parsley plus extra for garnish

Instructions

Cook the sauce

Heat the olive oil in a large, deep skillet or pot over medium heat. Add the onions, cook 3-4 minutes, until they start to soften and become translucent. Stir them frequently so they don’t burn.
Add the garlic and Italian seasoning and cook 1 minute, stirring frequently.
Next, add the sausage to the skillet and raise the heat to medium-high. Stir the sausage while breaking up any large pieces with a wooden spoon or a spatula. Cook for approximately 5 minutes until browned.
Add the pasta sauce and diced tomatoes to the sausage and stir well. Bring the sauce to a simmer, lower heat to medium-low and cover. Cook the sauce for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Keep the sauce at a simmer. If it starts boiling too vigorously, lower the heat a little bit.
Taste the tomato sauce and add salt, if needed. As a reference we did not add extra salt to ours.
Prepare the remaining ingredients while the sauce cooks. Leave the meat sauce on low if you are still getting everything ready.

Make the cheese mixture

Add the ricotta cheese, 2 cups mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, egg, parsley, and black pepper to a large bowl. Stir well to combine. Refrigerate until you are ready to stuff the pasta.
Preheat the oven 350°F

Build the dish

Add about ⅔ of the meat sauce to a baking dish (2.5-quart 8x12 inch dish).
Stuff the pasta with the cheese mixture. Work with one tube at a time and fill it with the ricotta mixture. Place it in the baking dish. Repeat with the remaining ingredients. Arrange them so that they fit snugly.
Spoon the remaining sauce over the stuffed manicotti.
Top with the remaining 1 cup of mozzarella cheese.

Bake

Cover the casserole dish with aluminum foil and bake for 35-45 minutes or until bubbly around the edges. Uncover the dish and cook another 5 minutes.
Garnish with fresh chopped parsley, if desired. Let it rest for 15-20 minutes before serving.

Notes

The best way to stuff the pasta is to fill a large piping bag with the filling and snip a piece off the end. Make the opening large enough to dispense the filling and small enough so it fits in the pasta tube.

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