manicotti-cheese bake

Simply Satisfying

As a self-proclaimed Italian foodie, I was leery about this recipe. It seemed far too basic from the looks of the recipe (below). But my love of pasta and red sauce drew me into the light. #CarolAnne

The end result? A delicious dinner! You can modify this to suit your preference. I read about options including adding chopped parsley, ground meat, or vegetables to the cheese mixture. Drooling!

Manicotti or Cannelloni? Yeah, I wasn’t sure of the difference, either. Manicotti tubes are ridged and typically thicker than their cannelloni friends, which are smooth and slightly thinner. Either way, you win with carbs! 

My instinct says this recipe hails from circa 1980 based on the print quality and fonts used in the recipe. I’ll do some digging to see if I’m right and post an update. The original recipe scan is below. Enjoy!

Foodie Tips

❤  For an easy way to get the cheese inside the manicotti shells, pipe it in! Take a plastic sandwich bag and fill it with the cheese mixture. Snip off a corner of the bag with some scissors and you just made yourself a piping bag. After parboiling the pasta, insert the snipped end of the bag into the shell and squeeze/pipe until the shell is filled.

❤  We required more cheese and of course, preferred more sauce. You can double everything below (aside from the shells). For the shells, we made a couple extra just in case there were any unforeseen splits/cracks during parboiling. Any split/cracked shells make for fun snacking!

❤  If you’re in a pinch for time, you can use your own sauce. Dare I say use a jarred sauce! Joe makes a delicious red sauce that we try to keep on hand, but it usually winds up being devoured within a day or two.

i. Time

About an hour (all in)

ii. Ingredients

½ pound  |  ground beef
½ cup  |  white onion, minced
¼ cup  |  green pepper, chopped
⅔ cup  |  tomato paste
2 cups  |  water
1 ½ teaspoon  |  salt
½ teaspoon  |  fresh cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon  |  sugar
1 ½ teaspoon  |  italian seasoning
8-9  |  manicotti shells
2 cups (1 pound)  |  ricotta cheese
1 cup (4 ounces)  |  mozzarella cheese, hand grated
to serve  |  more cheese and fresh basil on top

iii. What To Do

1. Sauté meat, onion, and green pepper. Drain off the fat.

2. Add the tomato paste, water, salt, pepper, sugar, and the Italian seasoning. Simmer 15 minutes.

3. While the sauce is simmering, parboil the manicotti in salted water for 4 minutes. Drain and set the shells aside on a paper towel to rest.

4. Prepare the cheese mixture by combining the ricotta and mozzarella cheese in a medium bowl. Transfer into your piping bag (see recipe tip above).

5. Prepare an 8 inch (or a size appropriate for how much you’re making) baking dish by placing some of the sauce on the bottom. Now is a good time to preheat your oven to 350°F.

6. Begin filling one of the parboiled shells with the cheese mixture. Place the filled shell into the baking dish and continue until all shells are ready to go.

7. Cover the shells with the tomato sauce.

8. Bake at 350°F for 20-30 minutes, or until things are nice and bubbly. Just before serving top with more cheese and some fresh basil.

Servings: 4-6 (maybe more)

~ Patrick

Betty’s Son
Founder and “Nostalgic Food Blogger” of Betty’s Cook Nook

An original scan of Mom’s recipe:

Who was Carol Anne?

Carol Anne (aka Heather O’ Rourke) was one of the most iconic childhood actors! You may remember her phrase “They’re here!

11/30/21Presidente Brandy