Manicotti

Submitted by Patty L Williams

"This recipe was given to me by a Greek friend who made it for special occasions."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 30mins
• Ingredients: 15
• Serves: 8

ingredients

• 1 package Hillshire Farm Italian Sausage (Mild)
• 1 (12 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 can tomato paste
• 1 can water
• salt and pepper
• 1⁄2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon oregano
• 1 box fresh mushrooms, sliced

• Filling

• 1 container ricotta cheese
• 2 -3 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 package frozen spinach, chopped or 8 ounces fresh spinach, chopped fine
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper
• 1 box manicotti, boil as directed on package

directions

1. Squeeze out of casing into hot kettle.
2. Brown.
3. Add tomato sauce, tomato paste and water.
4. Add salt, pepper, garlic powder and oregano.
5. Put mushrooms in 30 minutes before preparing dish.
6. Stuff Manicotti with cheese mixture.
7. Put some sauce on the bottom of 9 x 13 pan.
8. Place Manicotti in rows so they're not touching each other.
9. Pour remaining sauce on top.
10. Top with some Mozzarella.
11. Put in oven at 350F degrees until it bubbles.

Reviews

[jacquesmorrow]

Very good recipe but too blank for my family who family loves spicy and fresh produce. I modified the sauce by adding finely chopped fresh garlic, onions and used hot italian sausage. The sauce was great. I also added 1 cup of the meat sauce to the cheese filling for the manicotti. This is a keeper.

 

[korij]

I followed this recipe exactly, and I even did it right, so far as I can tell; however, I really did not care for it at all. The filling was okay, but I didn't like the sauce at all, and none of my kids liked it. Sorry, I don't normally review things unless I can give them a good rating; and this wasn't TERRIBLE by any means, just not something I would go out of my way to make again.

 

[woodland hues]

Very easy and outstanding! I halved my recipe, using 7 manicotti shells, 3 oz fresh spinach leaves, chopped, and halved the cheeses for the filling. The sauce was quick and tasty, having omitted the mushrooms entirely, and used a farmer's sausage, diced up, which I added to the sauce and didn't do any heating up, taking it straight to the baking dish. Baked about 40 mins. This made 2 meals for the 2 of us, along with a Greek salad one night, and recipe #53533 (tomato salad) another night. Just great. Thanks.

 

[Aubrey K]

I made this for my husband last night and he absolutely loved it! The recipe is very vague but here are my thoughts. I ended up short on sauce. Definitely use 2 15 oz cans of sauce and 2 6 oz cans of paste. I used the tomato paste can for the water. I also added a bit of basil to the sauce. In the filling, use the smaller container of ricotta (16oz maybe) I used the bigger container and had WAY too much left over. I froze it so i will use it up at a later time I guess. Great flavor over all.

 

[Kay D.]

Although the directions were a bit confusing, the results are quite delicious. I used 2 chopped garlic cloves instead of garlic powder. I also added a teaspoon of sugar to the sauce (taste preference). For the filling, I decided to do something different. I put all of the filling ingredients into the food processor, and whirled it into the most beautiful green filling. Nice color contrast to the tomato sauce. Will probably make this again.