Sausage and Cheese Manicotti

Here's another tried and try recipe we like. Again from the rceipe cards from long ago. I love the simple flavors of this, particularly the brightness of the tomato sauce. I had some issues with my noodles, most of the, broke while cooking. Luckily the recipe makes enough to fill 10 and I had 9 full tubes and the broken one, I just rolled closed. I was also having troubles stuffing the manicotti. I tried using a baggie, but the mixture just sort of ripped the noodle open more. Then I figured out that I could roll the mixture into a tube shape and stuff the manicotti that way.

Sausage and Cheese Manicotti

slightly adapted from Healthy Meals in Minutes recipe cards

1 package (8oz) manicotti shells (this recipes will use 10, prepare for torn shells)

14 oz reduced sodium tomato sauce (I used 24 oz)

6 oz hot or sweet (Italian) sausage, casings removed (I used Italian ground turkey)

15 oz part-skim ricotta cheese

1 cup shredded part skim mozzarella cheese, divided
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 TBL chopped fresh parsley
Italian Seasoning grinder (to taste)
1/8 tsp pepper


Preheat oven to 350'. Spray a 9x13 pan with nonstick spray, set aside.
Cook pasta according to package, but do not add salt. Drain pasts in a large colander.
To prepare filling, in a large nonstick skillet, cook sausage over medium heat, stirring to crumble, until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain.
In a large bowl, combine ricotta, sausage, egg, parsley, and pepper. Mix well. Add mixture to cooked manicotti. (TIP: this is how I did it: if the mixture isn't too wet, you can take a little and roll it into a cigar shape, then stuff each shell that way.)
Place stuffed manicotti in a single layer in prepared pan (I actually added a little tomato sauce & Italian seasoning to the bottom of the pan too). Spoon tomato sauce evenly over manicotti, sprinkle with mozzarella and more Italian seasonin. Bake covered until heated through, about 25 minutes, then uncover ans cook another 10 minutes.

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enjoy,