Homemade Three Cheese Manicotti (small batch)

 

This homemade three cheese manicotti recipe I am sharing with you today is one you are sure to love. Simple to make it is rich and indulgent. Pure comfort food. If you are looking for a delicious dish to serve for meatless Monday, or looking to cut back on your consumption of meat, you cannot do much better than this tasty dish.

What you have here are delicious pasta tubes, filled with a lush and rich cheese mixture, baked beneath a layer of delicious marinara sauce and more cheese.  Bubbly, cheesy and fabulously tasty. I promise you that you will not miss the meat!  Seriously!

 

As a child I really had a hatred of having pasta mixed with meat. It was a texture thing.  I couldn't stand the two textures combined. They didn't feel right in my mouth. I spent many mealtimes sitting in front of a plate of meat and pasta for hours long after everyone else had left the table while my parents forced me to eat what was put in front of me.

I got very good at extricating the meat from any pasta dish. I would use my fork and pick it all out of the holes in the macaroni. When I was done there would be a small pile of ground meat on the side of my plate.  

I really did not like it and truth be told it is still not my favorite thing.  That's why I love dishes like this one!  Rich and delicious. Creamy and cheesy.  True comfort food that everyone always enjoys.

A plate of this, with some salad on the side and a nice slice of crusty bread and I am in heaven.

 

WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE HOMEMADE THREE CHEESE MANICOTTI

Just a few simple ingredients. You will need to buy manicotti shells. These are available in the pasta aisle of the shops.

• 4 ounces (113g) manicotti shells (6)
• 3/4 cup (340g) full fat ricotta cheese
• 1 1/2 cups (170g) Mozzarella cheese, grated and divided
• 1/2 cup (90g) Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated and divided
• 1 large egg
• 1 fat clove garlic, peeled and grated
• 1 TBS chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt or to taste
• 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
• pinch nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cups (340g) good quality marinara sauce

 

As I said you can buy the manicotti shells in the pasta aisle of the grocery shop.  The ricotta cheese will be in the cheese section, usually the specialty cheese section.  If you cannot find that or you don't like ricotta you can also use the equivalent in cottage cheese or even cream cheese.

If you can, do grate your own mozzarella and Parmesan/Pecorino. 

I grate my garlic on a fine holed micro-plane grater.

I used a really good jar of Marinara sauce. Favuzzi is the brand. It was marked down the last time I went to the grocery store and I picked up a couple of bottles. It comes right from Italy.  You can use any good marinara/tomato sauce that you enjoy. There also happened to be just enough in the jar for this recipe.

 

HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE THREE CHEESE MANICOTTI

This is really not all that hard to do. Just make sure you don't overcook the pasta before you begin. You will want it to not be quite al dente, as it will cook further in the oven and you don't want them to come out mushy.

Bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil. Add the manicotti shells and cook for five minutes only. Drain well and lay out ready to fill.

Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter a shallow baking dish large enough to hold the filled shells. Spoon about 1/3 of the marinara sauce in and spread it out.

Whisk the ricotta cheese together with the egg, 1 cup (111g) grated mozzarella, 1/4 cup (45g) of the Romano or Parmigiano cheese, garlic, basil, Italian seasoning, nutmeg, salt and black pepper together. Combine well.

Combine the remaining cheeses and set aside.

Fill the partially cooked manicotti shells. I put the filling into a zip lock baggie and cut one corner off and use this to pipe the filling in. Take care not to overfill them as the cheese will expand when it cooks.

 

Place each filled manicotti shell into the baking dish, placing them almost next to each other. They will swell when cooking.

Spoon the remaining marinara sauce over top to cover. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Cover tightly with aluminum foil.

Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, uncovering during the last five minutes of bake time. The cheese should be a light golden brown and the sauce should be bubbling.

Leave to cool for five minutes before serving.

 

VARIATIONS AND POSSIBILITIES

This is a pretty simple barebones recipe.  There are some options you can use to make it even tastier.

1. If you are not a vegetarian you can add some crumbled cooked bacon or Italian sausage to the filling, or even chopped browned pancetta.

2. Vary the cheeses. Fontina, Gruyere and Provolone would also be very good.

3. Sauteed mushrooms and or mushrooms would also be nice in the filling.

4. Not a fan of ricotta cheese, you could use cottage cheese in its place or even cream cheese.  I can attest to the deliciousness of cream cheese.

5. You can add a layer of bechamel to the top prior to adding the remaining cheese. 

HOW TO MAKE A SIMPLE BECHAMEL - Heat 1 cup (240ml) of milk together with 1/2 small onion that you have stuck with a clove and a bay leaf. Bring just to the boil then remove from heat and set aside for 30 minutes to infuse. Strain, discarding the onion, clove and bay leaf.  

Melt 1 TBS of butter in a saucepan. Whisk in 1 TBS of flour. Cook for a minute and then slowly whisk in the infused milk.  Cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until the mixture thickens and comes to the boil.  Cook for two minutes.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and a pinch of nutmeg.

This was rich and indulgent. If you use only quality ingredients to begin with you cannot help but have a quality result. The filling of the manicotti was creamy and loaded with flavor. I had used a great marinara sauce so that added to the pleasure.

I was probably a bit more than generous with the cheese on top (can there ever be too much?).  It came out beautifully.  If you wanted to you could also add a layer of bechamel to the top before you add the extra layer of cheese. This would make it even more delicious!

I enjoyed this simply with some salad and garlic bread on the side. I froze 2/3 of it in single serving containers to enjoy in the future.

Is pasta one of your favorite food groups?  It is one of mine. I just love the stuff. Here are a few other pasta favorites of mine that you might also enjoy making and eating! These tasty options are also vegetarian.

PASTA E PISELLI - Simple ingredients put together in a simple way.  Pasta, peas, water and cheese. It doesn't get any simpler or easier than this. You wouldn't think that simple things like this could come together in such a delicious way, but like magic, they do!  I love this.

CREAMY SWEETCORN MAC & CHEESE - Cooked macaroni folded together with a creamy two cheese sauce, a can of creamed corn and some kernel corn. This gets spooned into a baking dish, topped with even more cheese and some buttered cracker crumbs before baking to cheesy corny perfection. Don't knock it until you try it!

Yield: Three servings

Author: Marie Rayner

Homemade Three Cheese Manicotti (small batch)

Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 40 MinTotal time: 1 Hour

Pure and simple comfort food. Pasta tubes stuffed with a rich and lush cheese filling, topped with marinara sauce and more cheese and baked to bubbly golden perfection.

Ingredients

• 4 ounces (113g) manicotti shells (6)
• 3/4 cup (340g) full fat ricotta cheese
• 1 1/2 cups (170g) Mozzarella cheese, grated and divided
• 1/2 cup (90g) Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated and divided
• 1 large egg
• 1 fat clove garlic, peeled and grated
• 1 TBS chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt or to taste
• 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
• pinch nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cups (340g) good quality marinara sauce

Instructions

1. Bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil. Add the manicotti shells and cook for five minutes only. Drain well and lay out ready to fill.
2. Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter a shallow baking dish large enough to hold the filled shells. Spoon about 1/3 of the marinara sauce in and spread it out.
3. Whisk the ricotta cheese together with the egg, 1 cup (111g) grated mozzarella, 1/4 cup (45g) of the Romano or Parmigiano cheese, garlic, basil, Italian seasoning, nutmeg, salt and black pepper together. Combine well.
4. Combine the remaining cheeses and set aside.
5. Fill the partially cooked manicotti shells. I put the filling into a zip lock baggie and cut one corner off and use this to pipe the filling in. Take care not to overfill them as the cheese will expand when it cooks.
6. Place each filled manicotti shell into the baking dish, placing them almost next to each other. They will swell when cooking.
7. Spoon the remaining marinara sauce over top to cover. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Cover tightly with aluminum foil.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, uncovering during the last five minutes of bake time. The cheese should be a light golden brown and the sauce should be bubbling.
9. Leave to cool for five minutes before serving.

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