I made this recipe for my family and it is always a great meal. My mother-in-law would make Manicotti and called it "Man-ĭ-got". It was always a favorite meal!
I used the Barilla brand of pasta and they were beautiful! My filling was mixed together and I placed it in a large zip-lock bag. I snipped the end and it worked well filling the pasta tubes.
I over-filled them so the cheese would not pour out during baking, lined them up and then poured sauce over.
Now, the beauty of the lined up shells bursting with cheese is a beautiful sight. Once the sauce is poured over you loose that beautiful display. Often, this is where some cooks will cover the shells only with a white sauce to bake. It helps to maintain the moisture but maintains the beauty of the dish. Then they serve red sauce on the side. Stanley Tucci in his great cookbook The Tucci Cookbook makes this recipe but uses the homemade crêpes and white sauce. Now this is a cookbook worth having in your collection.
Here is my recipe:
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I don't use too much cheese on top due to the over abundance of cheese in the dish itself.
Now...this is a scrumptious dish...or as stated in the movie "Big Night"...PARADISE!
"You have to be serious about what you do but you mustn't take yourself seriously. That way you'll be happier and ultimately you'll be more successful. You'll be better at what you do." ~ Stanley Tucci
"If you find that thing you love, it doesn't necessarily matter whether you do it well or not - you just need to do it." ~ Stanley Tucci
