Three Cheese Manicotti
My wife Dana is from New York City! When we visit NYC, we like to purchase food items to bring back Virginia. One of those food items is fresh pasta. Our favorite is Manicotti. You just can’t beat the flavor of the pasta, from the pasta stores in New York. Since we haven’t been to NY in a while, our stash has run dry. So I wanted to surprise Dana with some handmade Manicotti. I must say the three cheese Manicotti was freaking fantastic. Even Dana said it was the best that she had eaten. That says a lot.
Three Cheese Manicotti
The first thing that you have to do to make Manicotti is to make the pasta. Traditional manicotti uses a crepe, but we like to form tubes from pasta sheets. To make sheet pasta follow the recipe here.
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
Once you have the pasta made, it is time to make the filling. In a large bowl combine the ricotta, eggs, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Mozzarella, parsley, salt and pepper.
Place the cheese mixture into a zip-top bag and seal. Then cut the corner of the bag about 2/3rds of an inch up.
Lay the sheet pasta out onto prep surface. Then cut the pasta into 4-5 inch inch pieces.
Using the zip-top bag as a pastry bag, squeeze a cylinder of the cheese filling down the sheet about 1 inch from the edge.
Once you have a cylinder of cheese on the pasta, wet the far edge of the pasta with a little water. Then gently roll the pasta around the cylinder of cheese forming tubes. Make sure to roll the pasta all the way to the edge. The water will seal the pasta making a tube.
Cover the bottom of a baking dish with sauce and then arrange the Manicotti in a single layer in the baking dish. Then gently spoon a little more sauce over the top of each Manicotti. Then sprinkle with a little more Parmigiano-Reggiano.
This will probably make more Manicotti than you have room for in your baking dish. If that happens you can make two dishes or you can place the remaining into a freezer bag and freeze them for up to a year. Make sure to freeze them in a single layer that way you can cook them right from frozen.
Cover the dish with foil and then bake for 20-30 minutes or until the the filling is hot and the sauce is bubbly.
Then it is time to eat!
Three Cheese Manicotti
Ingredients
Method
- The first thing that you have to do to make Manicotti is to make the pasta. Traditional manicotti uses a crepe, but we like to form tubes from pasta sheets. To make sheet pasta follow the recipe here.
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Once you have the pasta made, it is time to make the filling. In a large bowl combine the ricotta, eggs, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Mozzarella, parsley, salt and pepper.
- Place the cheese mixture into a zip-top bag and seal. Then cut the corner of the bag about 2/3rds of an inch up.
- Lay the sheet pasta out onto prep surface. Then cut the pasta into 4-5 inch inch pieces.
- Using the zip-top bag as a pastry bag, squeeze a cylinder of the cheese filling down the sheet about 1 inch from the edge.
- Once you have a cylinder of cheese on the pasta, wet the far edge of the pasta with a little water. Then gently roll the pasta around the cylinder of cheese forming tubes. Make sure to roll the pasta all the way to the edge. The water will seal the pasta making a tube.
- Cover the bottom of a baking dish with sauce and then arrange the Manicotti in a single layer in the baking dish. Then gently spoon a little more sauce over the top of each Manicotti.
- Cover the dish with foil and then bake for 20-30 minutes or until the the filling is hot and the sauce is bubbly.
- Then it is time to eat!
This was quite possible the best homemade pasta I have ever made. Completely delicious!
