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.
Liked the recipe overall, though I think next time I’ll use a bit less pasta sauce and I’ll always put the cheese on before I start the bake as i like a nicely melted cheese(and another 5 minutes longer). Other than that, worked out well?
This was fabulous! The addition of the cream cheese ,which is my favorite, is wonderful especially since I don’t really like ricotta! It was easy to make except for stuffing the manicotti. Since I will be making this on repeat, I’ll get a piping bag to make that easier!It cooked to perfection and was very hearty!Thank you!
The cream cheese was what sold me!!! Not a fan of ricotta but the filling was phenomenal! It’s in the oven and no doubt in my mind it’ll be even better!
For my taste, it was too heavy on the cream cheese. But other than that, it was good
I’m a terrible cook and this turned out delicious. It’s very rich in flavor and very filling. Still very delicious for leftovers.
Made it twice in 3 weeks.
Thank for sharing. Making for parents and friends today.
DELICIOUS!! I made it with sweet Italian Sausage and the heat level was just right. I will be keeping this recipe! Also, very easy to make.
I removed the red pepper added another garlic clove,fresh sausage And the rest was great for the first time making it.
I left out the red pepper because I can’t have it. Also, I did not precook the manicotti pasta. Instead, I diluted my pasta sauce with a cup of water and heated it before using, then Icovered and baked it for 50 minutes before removing the covering. That made it easier to fill. I do the same with my lasagna and I have never had undercooked pasta. Love the flavor and presentation of this dish.
Excellent flavor, but doubled the onion and Italian seasoning! Pipe it in with a plastic zip lock and two people is much easier.
8 oz. And one cup, are the same thing, but a odd way to write the recipe.