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.
10manicotti tubes,cooked according to package directions
1(24-ounce) jarpasta sauce
1/3cupgrated 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
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.