Nothing tastes better than homemade Italian food and making your own homemade manicotti is easier than you think. Try my recipe and impress your friends and family tonight.
How to make Homemade Manicotti
I do try to make most of what I use from scratch, but there are certain items that are just too good and are too much of a time saver to pass up. Now I’m not saying that I would never make my own fresh pasta sheets, but when you can get really good quality fresh pasta sheets, it’s almost a duh moment not to use them. To be honest with you, I don’t even remember why I originally bought them a few weeks ago, but there they were!
There are certain items I try to always have on hand and ricotta is one of them, so luckily I had everything I needed to make my manicotti. Using the pasta sheets, they were incredibly easy to make, and so much better than even the best homemade I have bought in specialty stores.
So if you haven’t tried making them, you really need to, if you feel so inclined you could make your own ravioli out of the pasta sheets too!
If you’d like to try your hand at making your own marinara sauce this is the recipe I’ve been using for over thirty years. If you make it you’ll never buy premade sauce again.
If you’ve tried my Homemade Manicotti recipe or any other recipe on askchefdennis.com please don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know where you found it in the comments below, I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on Instagram @chefdenniseats and @chefdennistravels, Twitter and Facebook.
Nothing tastes better than homemade Italian food and making your own homemade manicotti is easier than you think. Try my recipe and impress your friends and family tonight.
- 32 oz ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup Romano cheese grated
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 tbsp Italian parsley finely chopped
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese shredded
- 6 fresh pasta sheets
- 3 cups marinara sauce
- preheat oven to 350
- In a mixing bowl add the all of the ingredients for the filling (reserving half of the shredded mozzarella to use as a topping) mix well until fully blended.
- cut each pasta sheet in half to make to (aprox) 6x6 inch squares
- place 2 or 3 spoonfuls of the ricotta mixture at one end of the square and roll it into a log (wet the end of the sheet with water to help seal it)*
- add a little marinara to the bottom of the baking dish you are using
- place each log with the seam side down in a baking dish and repeat until you have used all the pasta sheets and ricotta. I made 12 from this mix
- after you placed all the manicotti in your baking dish, cover with marinara and bake for 30 minutes.
- Remove from oven and top with shredded mozzarella and bake for 5 more minutes or until cheese is bubbly.
- Allow manicotti to rest for 5 minutes before serving so the cheese has a chance to set up well.
- Serve with a tossed salad and garlic bread and enjoy!
*if the manicotti does not seem full at each end use a spoon to finish filling the ends.
More recipes from my site
Let the Zucchini Blossom Special – Shine its Ever Lovin’ Light on You- How to Make a Pork Tenderloin Stuffed with Sausage and Spinach
- Quick and Easy Shrimp Fra Diavlo Recipe
- How to Make Shrimp Scampi Ravioli – Date Night Dinners
- My Favorite Classic Italian Spaghetti and Meatballs Recipe
- Tomato and Spinach Lasagna Recipe
Kita says
April 15, 2012 at 9:05 pmThe idea of little piggie snails has me laughing out loud and I can not for the life of me explain what is making me laugh to my boyfriend who is asking as I type. I love your take – and love reading these vintage recipe swaps as I come across them from other blogs too.
Liz says
April 8, 2012 at 8:01 pmOh, my, oh, my! I want this on my plate VERY soon! Fabulous dish, my friend!
Helene Dsouza I Masala Herb says
April 7, 2012 at 2:19 amI dont think so I have ever tried Manicotti, I am not even sure if I know this dish, but it looks and sounds like my kind of think. The cheese combination must make it a memorable dish!
sure making fresh pasta sheets is a time killer but it realy makes a big difference if u use home made or bought ones, in my opinion. But even I have to manage the little time I have in my life so I end up finaly buying more then making pasta.
Kim Bee says
April 3, 2012 at 7:33 pmDude I hope you saved me some. Hoping on a plane right now.
gloria says
April 3, 2012 at 9:20 amLook amazing Dennis, and love your pictures!!
gloria says
April 3, 2012 at 9:21 amHa really I wanna make this:)
Christy says
April 3, 2012 at 12:33 amThis sounds interesting and looks yummy too!:) Definitely an enjoyable read, and I thought it was some gourmet food when I first saw it. Great job for the homemade food which turned out to be so stunning!:)
lindsay | rosemarried says
April 3, 2012 at 12:16 amI love love loooooove manicotti. It was my favorite meal growing up, actually! I think this recipe makes perfect sense an an interpretation of ham snails (you stuff cheese into a shell!). Plus, I’m really hungry as I’m looking at this post…and your manicotti looks especially wonderful. Thanks for sharing, Dennis!
anna says
April 2, 2012 at 11:06 pmmmm i love manicotti, they are like tiny little lasagnas. very nice!
Stephanie @ Eat. Drink. Love. says
April 2, 2012 at 9:22 pmWe always make homemade manicotti in my family. It’s such a special meal and its so worth all the time to make each shell!
Southern Shelle says
April 2, 2012 at 8:48 pmI really love the idea of the vintage cookbook swap! I inherited a stack of old cookbooks from my grandmother in law and they are filled with classics as well as recipes that are quite terrifying. For example Squirrel Mulligan doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. Anyway, thanks for sharing the concept of the swap and the manicotti looks beautiful!
Lyndsey@TheTinySkillet says
April 2, 2012 at 8:38 pmIt sounds like a fun swap…gotta smile at some of the vintage cookbooks! This does look amazing. I wish I had ricotta cheese on hand all the time. I will try your marinara sauce soon!
RavieNomNoms says
April 2, 2012 at 2:01 pmThat looks great! Always such a homey and hearty feeling for me when I have pasta. YUM
Mary says
April 2, 2012 at 11:15 amYour manicotti looks great, Chef Dennis. I just saved your sauce recipe to try this year as well. I don’t know why, but I always prefer sauces made from crushed tomatoes over any other!
Jennie @themessybakerblog says
April 2, 2012 at 7:53 amAnything stuffed with cheese is a winner in my book. This looks delicious.
Larry says
April 2, 2012 at 7:38 amI’ve got manicotti on my make soon list and yours looks awesome.
Alyssa says
April 2, 2012 at 8:17 amI’m sad to say that the only manicotti I’ve ever had was the elementary school variety. I think it’s about time I had the real thing! This looks great!
Bloggy says
April 1, 2012 at 11:48 pmVery good recipe, something to try for dinner.
Betty Ann @Mango_Queen says
April 1, 2012 at 10:43 pmOh this homemade manicotti is just so irresistable ! I am tempted to just grab it from the screen right now (and I had a big dinner at that!). Thanks for sharing this, Chef Dennis. Glad you’re part of the Vintage Recipe Swap because you’re bringing us some pretty fantastic recipes! Have a great week!
Ann says
April 1, 2012 at 10:23 pmLooks fantastic! I love that folks are coming up with such original ideas!
Marsha @ The Harried Cook says
April 1, 2012 at 10:19 pmThis looks soooo yummy! I am bookmarking this one and heading over to check out your marinara sauce recipe… Thanks for sharing!
Laura Rees says
April 1, 2012 at 8:26 pmAwesome! That looks great, and the funny thing is I was going to make lasagna rolls (which didn’t work, so I just ended up with regular old lasagna). Why didn’t I think of manicotti? 🙂
Sandie says
April 1, 2012 at 9:21 pmLooks absolutely mouthwatering!