Italian Sausage Manicotti- an easy recipe for manicotti stuffed with Italian sausage and cheese and covered with tomato sauce. This Italian favorite makes a great family meal.
There’s 4 types of cheese in this manicotti for maximum flavor. A container of chive and onion cream cheese adds not only flavor, but lots of richness. Ricotta cheese, cream cheese, mozzarella cheese, and Parmesan cheese combine to make this a wonderfully cheesy pasta dish. Since it is so rich and filling, 1 to 2 manicotti are plenty per person, especially if you serve it with garlic bread and a salad.
I love using sausage for this recipe because it is already seasoned and tastes so good.
What to serve with Italian Sausage Manicotti:
- A green salad with Creamy Italian Dressing.
- Steamed Broccoli
- Pepperoncini Garlic Bread
Recipe Notes:
- I use a jar of spaghetti sauce, but you could use a homemade sauce.
- If you want to add in some vegetables, mix a box of frozen chopped spinach into the filling. Be sure to defrost it first and squeeze the excess water out.
- Use either sweet or hot Italian sausage. If you use spicy sausage, you may want to cut down on the crushed red pepper flakes unless you want a lot of heat.
- Can be assembled ahead of time and refrigerated until you are ready to bake it. Add 10 to 15 minutes to the cooking time.
- If you can’t fit all the filling into the manicotti shells, place the excess on top of the manicotti or tuck it around the sides of the manicotti.
- Leftovers will keep in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days.
Italian comfort food doesn’t get any better than this.
Try These Other Italian Favorites:
- Italian Meatloaf
- Baked Sausage with Italian Sausage
- Slow Cooker Spaghetti Casserole
- Chicken Patty Parmesan
- Italian Sausage Rigatoni with Spicy Cream Sauce
Italian Sausage Manicotti
Ingredients
- 1 pound Italian sausage
- 1/2 medium yellow or sweet onion,, diced
- 3 garlic cloves,, minced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepepr flakes
- 8 ounces chive and onion cream cheese
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 1/4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese,, divided
- 10 manicotti tubes,, cooked according to package directions
- 1 (24-ounce) jar pasta sauce
- 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.
- Cook and crumble Italian sausage in a large nonstick pan. Once you have it broken apart, add the onion. Cook until the sausage is no longer pink.
- Add garlic, Italian seasoning, and crushed red pepper flakes and cook 1 minute.
- Turn heat to low and add cream cheese. Stir until melted. Remove from heat.
- Let cool slightly and then stir in 3/4 cup of mozzarella cheese, ricotta cheese, and pepper.
- Stuff the mixture into the manicotti shells. You can either use a spoon or fork to push it in or you can transfer the mixture ot a large ziptop bag and snip the corner and pipe it in.
- Pour about 1/2 cup of sauce in the prepared baking dish and spread it evenly. Place the filled manicotti tubes on top of the sauce.Pour remaining sauce on top of manicotti.
- Cover and bake for 25 minutes.
- Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. Bake uncovered for 10 more minutes.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Does this recipe require pre-cooking the manicotti shells?
Where do you find manicotti shells in Pennsylvania?