Easy Baked Manicotti

Submitted by SouthernBell2627

"This recipe is from "Kraft: Food and Family", Winter 2006."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 30mins
• Ingredients: 7
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 2 cups spaghetti sauce
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 3⁄4 cups ricotta cheese
• 1 1⁄2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1⁄2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
• 1⁄4 cup basil pesto (DiGiorno) (optional)
• 12 manicotti, cooked, rinsed in cold water

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread 3/4 cup of the spaghetti sauce on bottom of 13x9-inch baking dish. Mix egg, cheeses, and pesto sauce until well blended. Spoon cheese mixture into large resealable plastic bag. Using scissors, cut off small hole from one of the bottom corners of bag.
2. Cook manicotti shells for half of the time on the box. This will keep them firm enough to handle and not fall apart when stuffing. The additional cook time in the oven will cook them the rest of the way. After you remove the partially cooked manicotti from the stove, transfer them into a container of cold water. This will prevent them from continuing to cook
3. Fill manicotti shells, 1 at a time, squeezing cheese mixture into both sides of each shell. Place manicotti over sauce in dish; pour remaining 1 1/4 cups spaghetti sauce over manicotti. Cover with foil.
4. Bake 40 minutes or until heat through.

Reviews

[DanielleRaichel]

Super easy to make especially if you buy premade pesto and sauce! The noodles broke to easy by just using a bag. Next time i'll use a pastry bag that will actually not break the shells. Super simple.

 

[stacylu]

Awesome and so so easy! I made two at once and put one in the freezer for an even easier meal!

 

[Oolala]

YUM! Tasted delicious. It was so easy to mix up the filling. I love the idea of using prepared pesto. I made it even easier by NOT cooking the manicotti noodles and just filled them using an iced tea spoon. I had 14 (Barilla) and I covered them all with the rest of the sauce from a 24 oz. jar. I covered the dish tightly with foil and baked it for 1 hour. The noodles were cooked al dente (the way I like it). I will make this again for sure! Thanks! PS- I didn't have mozzerella (oops) so I used cheddar, which seemed odd to me but it worked out well.

 

[Charmie777]

Fantastic and easy!!! I added some additional pesto sauce in a stripe on the top of the manicotti. I also added some more shredded mozzarella on top just for the last 5 minutes or so. Will make again and again!!!

 

[Chef smileyzookie]

I added a bit of ground beef. My husband was THRILLED with it. I had a side of sesame asparagus and garlic bread. It was very good. I am not fond of ricotta cheese, but my husband said this was perfect.