Easy Cheese Manicotti

Easy Cheese Manicotti  is stuffed with three kinds of cheese and smothered in savory tomato sauce. A simple Italian dish that’s sure to be a hit!

 Easy Cheese Manicotti

This Easy Cheese Manicotti recipe is a cheese lover’s dream dinner! It’s a tasty, simple, comfort food meal my kids always request because cheese is everyone’s best friend in our home. I love this simple method because you don’t have to boil or cook the manicotti noodles beforehand. Pair it with a crisp green salad and a loaf of French bread, garlic bread or a batch of our Pizza Factory’s Bread Twists for a delicious meal that everyone loves.

What is Manicotti?

Manicotti is an Italian word that literally means “little sleeve”. They are long, tubular pasta shells. Most manicotti recipes are some variation of the pasta sleeve filled with cheeses like ricotta, mozzarella, and parmesan and covered in marinara sauce. It can also sometimes include meat like beef or veal or vegetables like mushrooms and onion. Originally, manicotti was made from crepes that were rolled and filled with meat and cheese, but eventually the pasta shape was popularized.

Ingredients for Cheese Manicotti

This easy cheesy manicotti comes together with simple ingredients – nothing fancy or hard to find And the best part: you don’t need to cook manicotti shells ahead of time. Here’s all you need:

• A package of uncooked manicotti pasta
• Three cups of your favorite spaghetti sauce or homemade sauce
• Ricotta cheese (you can use cottage cheese as a substitute)
• Shredded mozzarella cheese (you’ll use about a cup mozzarella cheese inside the manicotti shells and some to sprinkle on top with the remaining sauce)
• ​Half a cup parmesan cheese
• An egg
• Basil, parsley flakes, salt and pepper to taste

Make it a Freezer Meal

This is an easy meal to freeze and bake later and is an ideal option for delivering to new moms, friends or neighbors. We almost always double the recipe and prepare two pans. We bake one for dinner and freeze the other baking dish for another time, or to give to someone in need of a warm, rich, nourishing dinner. If you’re freezing one or more pans of this recipe, follow the instructions in the recipe card below. Once the dish is covered with aluminum foil, use a marker to write baking instructions on top of the foil so you (or anyone you take this meal to) remember the correct baking temperature and how to bake it.

Baking from Frozen Instructions

Thaw the cheese manicotti dish overnight in the refrigerator before baking. Leaving the foil on the pan, bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes. Then uncover, sprinkle some mozzarella cheese over the top, then return to the oven for about five minutes or until the cheese melts. It tastes just as fresh as if you just made it. And the leftovers taste even better!

How to Fill Manicotti Shells

To keep mess to a minimum there’s a super easy way to get all that cheesy goodness in the manicotti shells. Using a spoon, fill a Ziploc bag with the ricotta mixture, then cut a hole in one of the corners. You can also use a piping bag with a wide tip if you have one. Start at one end of the pasta shell and pipe mixture in until about halfway full. Then turn the shell over and repeat on the other side. No mess, no fuss, just perfectly filled pasta shells!

Suggestions for This Recipe

• You can add ground beef or turkey to this dish to give it a bit more bulk. Just mix browned beef in with your cheese mixture and fill your manicotti shells as directed in the recipe card below.
• This recipe is delicious with our Homemade Canned Spaghetti Sauce or with your favorite jar of spaghetti sauce from the grocery store. You can also try it with our Homemade Spaghetti Sauce with Fresh Tomatoes.

More Tasty Pasta Dishes

• Baked Italian Sausage Rotini
• Chicken Parmesan
• Slow Cooker Lasagna
• Pasta Sausage Bake
• Shrimp Alfredo Pasta