This spinach and three cheese manicotti is an easy family favorite meal. Recipe includes a shortcut that avoids the tedious stuffing of manicotti shells–hooray! From the flavorful filling, to the sauce and melted cheese topping, everything about this manicotti dish is simply delicious.
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Hi friends. How’s it going?
How are you, really?
We are plugging along here. It’s kinda weird looking at all the activities you had planned for the foreseeable future and realizing none of that is on the schedule anymore.
But you won’t hear this little introverted homebody complaining one bit. I’m actually quite loving it. And when it’s over you’ll probably find me hidden away in a deep dark closet somewhere begging to go back into isolation mode. And forget the toilet paper, just make sure the house is stocked with plenty of chocolate to get me through. 🙂
All joking aside, you may have found yourself like me with a lot more time on your hands all of a sudden (or maybe not…I’ve heard some of the home school nightmares going around).
Well regardless of what’s going on, it’s always a great time to experiment with some new fun recipes.
And this spinach and three cheese manicotti is the perfect candidate. It’s one of our family’s favorite dishes.
A quick note about the recipe…
When I was typing this up I noticed I had somehow inadvertently listed that this manicotti dish makes 15 servings. Well I quickly changed that to make sure it was clear that it makes 15 manicotti rolls. And if you have a family like mine with teenage boys, those are definitely not equivalent.
To give you a glimpse of my reality, the five of us downed the whole pan of these in one sitting. Now granted two of the five are teenage boys with hollow legs that never seem to get filled up, especially if it’s something they like. And these apparently met those criteria because they may have even downed a second pan if I had made one.
What I love about this manicotti
1. The sauce is simple but so good.
Just 6 ingredients in the sauce and cooks in 15 minutes, it’s basic but so tasty.
I like to use a quart of home-canned tomatoes in the sauce. Because home canning food safety practices recommend adding vinegar to home-canned tomatoes, I add 1 to 2 teaspoons of granulated sugar to the sauce to counteract the acidity from the vinegar in my home-canned tomatoes.
The recipe makes just the right amount of sauce to cover the manicotti without a lot of extra. If you like things extra saucy, feel free to increase the amounts by 1.5 or 2 times the recipe listed.
2. The cheesy filling is so delicious.
It’s made up of frozen spinach, thawed and drained and squeezed dry with paper towels. Then mixed with three different cheeses – Ricotta, Parmesan, and Mozarella and some eggs and some spices that tie everything together.
This homemade ricotta is my all time favorite–seriously nothing beats it, have you tried it yet? You can make it in an hour and (most of that is unattended). It is so delicious.
3. No tedious stuffing of traditional manicotti shells.
I really don’t like trying to fill the slippery shells with miniature openings. They crack and break and it’s hard to fill them evenly. And then there’s the mess they make too. By the time you’re done it’s all over your fingers and counters and kitchen floor.
In this easy method you spread the filling on a lasagna noodle and roll it up to form a shell–I use a #20 cookie scoop (aff. link). It works so great and I actually think it tastes even better this way.
But if you are a manicotti traditionalist (or happen to have them on hand), you can always use regular manicotti shells in this recipe. Just promise you’ll give the lasagna noodles a try sometime, okay? Trust me, it’ll be hard to go back.
Okay, well I think that about covers the basics, my friends.
It’s time to dig in. These pictures are making me hungry.
Spinach and Three Cheese Manicotti
Spinach, Ricotta, Parmesan, and Mozarella stuffed in a delicious simple sauce and baked to perfection.
Ingredients
Sauce:
- 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes, undrained or 1 quart home-canned crushed tomatoes, see note
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 medium cloves garlic minced
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dried basil or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh
Cheese Filling:
- 2 cups (15 ounces) ricotta cheese see note
- 10 ounces frozen spinach thawed, drained and squeezed dry with paper towels
- 2 ounces (about ¾ cup) grated Parmesan cheese
- 5 ounces (about 1 cup) shredded mozzarella cheese
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried parsley or 1 ½ tablespoons chopped fresh
- ¾ teaspoon dried basil or 2 teaspoons chopped fresh
Pasta & Cheese Topping:
- 15 lasagna noodles see note
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella or Parmesan cheese or a combination of the two
Instructions
-
Adjust oven rack to center and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
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Pour crushed tomatoes in blender jar or food processor and pulse until desired consistency is reached (this step is optional but handy for picky kiddos).
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Heat oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes (if using) in a medium saucepan over medium heat until fragrant but not brown, about 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes, basil, ¼ teaspoon salt, and sugar (see note for home canned tomatoes) and simmer until thickened slightly, about 15 minutes.
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In a medium bowl, combine thawed and squeezed dry spinach, ricotta cheese, ¾ cup Parmesan cheese, 1 cup mozzarella cheese, beaten eggs, salt, pepper, parsley, and basil. Mix together with a fork until well combined. Set aside.
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Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water according to package directions for 6-7 minutes, until barely tender. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water. Lay flat on parchment paper until ready to use.
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Spread bottom of baking dish with enough sauce to barely cover (about ⅓ to ½ cup).
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Spread 3 tablespoons (I use a large #20 cookie scoop) of cheese mixture evenly on bottom three-quarters of each noodle, leaving top quarter of noodle exposed. Starting at the filled end, roll into tube shape and arrange in baking dish seam side down.
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Top evenly with remaining sauce, making sure that all the pasta is completely covered. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
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Cover with foil (spray foil first on underside to prevent sticking) and bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 35 minutes. Uncover and bake 10-15 minutes more, until bubbly. Turn on broiler and broil for 2-3 minutes until cheese is browned and bubbly (optional, but yummy if you like browned cheese). Remove from oven and let sit 10 minutes before serving.
Recipe Notes
1. For this recipe, I like to use a quart of home-canned tomatoes. Because home canning food safety practices recommend adding vinegar to home-canned tomatoes, I add 1 to 2 teaspoons of granulated sugar to the sauce to counteract the acidity from the vinegar.
2. My favorite ricotta to use is this homemade ricotta cheese. It is so delicious!
3. I prefer using lasagna noodles as they are easier to roll, but you can also use the regular manicotti shells or even large shells if you like. I like to use the Barilla brand of pasta for all my pasta recipes. I use the regular lasagna noodles for this recipe (not the no-boil noodles), and cook them just 6-7 minutes so they are just barely soft.
4. This recipe makes just the right amount of sauce to cover the manicotti without a lot of extra. If you like things extra saucy, 1.5x or 2x the sauce recipe.
Recipe Source: Heather @ The Cook’s Treat
All images and text ©The Cook’s Treat
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