This Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Manicotti is a favorite family recipe. Watch the video in the post showing you how to make manicotti, then scroll all the way to the bottom of this post and print out a clean copy of the recipe so you can make it at home.
Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Manicotti
Manicotti is a dish of great comfort. It makes plenty, it’s filling, it’s completely family-friendly, and the leftovers are even better than the freshly made batch. We make this when we have a handful of friends or family around. It’s a nice, no-fuss recipe that everyone seems to love. Make it ahead, keep it in the fridge and toss it in the oven when everybody is ready to eat.
If you didn’t know, manicotti is a pasta noodle shaped like a tube. It’s about 4-inches long, and 1-inch in diameter. Usually it’s boiled until al dente, then cooled, filled with some kind of cheese filling, covered with sauce and baked. In this recipe, you don’t have to bake the noodles before filling them. They’ll cook in the sauce when you bake the manicotti in the oven.
🛒Ingredients needed:
- ricotta cheese
- mozzarella cheese
- cream cheese
- parmesan cheese
- frozen spinach
- eggs
- salt & freshly ground black pepper
- manicotti noodles
- marinara sauce
✏️How to make Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Manicotti:
*The complete, printable recipe with all ingredients and instructions is at the end of this post.
The filling is very simple to make. Just mix it all up in a bowl until it’s well-blended. If you (or your kids) don’t like spinach, you can always leave it out… though I’ve found that you don’t really detect it all that much with all of the other wonderful things and sauce in the recipe.
You might consider it a good way to “sneak” some good stuff into dinner.
A layer of sauce goes into the bottom of a 13×9-inch pan.
The easiest way to stuff manicotti shells is the put the mixed filling into a plastic bag. You can use either a frosting piping bag or a gallon zip bag. Snip the corner, gather the top and squeeze the filling into the corner.
Hold an uncooked manicotti shell in your hand and squeeze the filling inside the shell. Let it overflow on both sides.
Place the filled shell into the sauce-lined pan.
Repeat with remaining manicotti and fill the pan with the stuffed shells, until you run out of shells and filling.
Cover with a generous layer of marinara sauce.
Sprinkle cheese on top. At this point, you can cover with foil, refrigerate and then bake when you’re ready. It’s ok to leave it in the refrigerator overnight.
Cover and bake for about an hour.
Pop open a bottle of red wine and eat! This Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Manicotti recipe will feed 6 or 7 hungry people- 2 stuffed shells each is plenty when served with salad and garlic bread. And lighter eaters will be plenty full with just one shell.
★How to Store:
Store leftovers in the refrigerator and enjoy over the next few days. I guarantee they won’t last long. Manicotti also freezes well. Just place leftovers in an airtight container and you can keep them in the freezer for up to 3 months.
❤️Why I love this recipe:
- My family has been loving this recipe since I was a kid. At our house it’s always been our traditional Christmas Eve meal.
- It’s a crowd pleaser. Even people who say they don’t like spinach love these manicotti!
- I love that it can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator until I’m ready to bake it. Makes getting dinner together so simple.
The Best Manicotti Recipes:
- Pumpkin Manicotti with Bechamel Sauce
- Chicken Manicotti
- Ham and Cheese Manicotti
- Chicken Manicotti Alfredo
Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Manicotti
Ingredients
- 15 ounces part skim ricotta cheese
- 8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- ½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- 10 ounces frozen spinach, thawed & squeezed dry
- 2 large eggs
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 box (12 to 14 shells) manicotti noodles
- 4 cups marinara sauce (jarred or homemade)
- ½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese, for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉.
- In a large bowl, mix the cheeses, spinach, eggs, salt and pepper. Stir together until well blended.
- Place about 1½ cups of marinara sauce in a 9x13-inch pan. Spread it around to cover the bottom.
- Place the mixed filling into a plastic bag. You can use either a frosting piping bag or a gallon zip bag. Snip the corner, gather the top and squeeze the filling into the corner. Hold an uncooked manicotti shell in your hand and squeeze the filling inside the shell. Let it overflow on both sides. Alternately, you can stuff the uncooked noodles with a small spoon or fork. Place the filled shell into the sauce-lined pan. Repeat with remaining manicotti and fill the pan with the stuffed shells, until you run out of shells and filling. You should be able to fill 12 to 14 shells- if you run out of room in your pan, use a separate smaller pan to accommodate the extra.
- Cover the pasta completely with marinara sauce, using about 2½ cups of sauce. Sprinkle ½ cup Parmesan on top. At this point, you can cover with foil and refrigerate until you're ready to bake, or you can cover with foil and place it in the oven immediately.
- Bake, covered with foil, 50 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes.
Notes
- It's perfectly okay to use low fat ricotta and low fat cream cheese.
- If you don't wish to use the spinach, it's ok to leave it out and just turn this into a cheese-stuffed manicotti.
- If you don't wish to use the plastic bag method of squeezing the filling into the shells, you can use a very small spoon or fork to stuff the filling-- it will just take a bit longer and might be a little messy.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
My daughter has been begging me to make stuffed shells since she had them in her school cafeteria– go figure! It’s been years since I’ve made them and didn’t love the idea of a ton of work, especially on a weeknight. This recipe was perfect- I used the manicotti (Ferrara brand- what my market had) with the filling in a Zip-loc bag and it was easy. For the filling, I found it helpful to only use one generous scoop at a time in the bag, and I left a little bit of the bag unzipped so the trapped air wouldn’t make it too puffy. I also cheated by filling one side of the tube, turning it around and then doing the other side. My kids loved them, it fed our family of 4 hungry people (2 adults, 2 kids) with leftovers for one kid’s lunch the day (!) and next time I will prep it in advance the night before to save even more time.
thank you for your sharing of your cooking gift with the rest of us! It’s very kind of you . I’m making the manicotti today my day off from the restaurant – so here’s to you & yours have a blessed day an wish me luck my first no cook noodle dish. Havin faith in your dish. ???????? Cindy H.
Do Not (over boil your manicotti shells).
You don’t need to boil them at all… just stuff the hard shells, stuff, cover with sauce and bake.
HAD FOR DINNER LAST NIGHT WAS DELICIOUS. BEST PART NOT HAVING TO COOK NOODLES. WILL BE DEFINITELY MAKING AGAIN. THANKS
Glad you enjoyed!
I’ve made these several times and they’re really good! Depending on what I have on hand, sometimes I use mozzarella and sometimes I use the “Italian Blend”. And sometimes I use fresh spinach (chopped in my food processor) which I think is easier to work with but tastes the same once all baked up. My sweetie is one that needs meat in a meal so I often oven roast some Italian sausage links (cut into 1/3s) about 15 min. into the cooking time and then, with a salad, it’s considered dinner. Also – instead of opening up another jar of spaghetti sauce, I add an 8 oz can of tomato sauce to make up for the “little extra” sauce needed. AND we can’t eat all 14 so we use 2 8×8 pans and freeze one! Bonus points for a freezer meal!! Thanks for the recipe that my 3 year old even eats!!
DD and I love you for putting this recipe up!
Love manicotti but not the mess.
What a time saver! We are making it today.
Its ok to not.com the shells.right? They will soften while cooking?
Thanks
Roxy
Yes. Just make sure they are covered with the sauce.
So much easier than I thought it would be! I loved it and thought it was great, I did omit the spinach though. My husband isn’t sold on it, but at least he said it was ok. I will definitely make again.
This meal was amazing! I love manicotti and this was the first time I have actually made it. I definitely recommend this recipe. Making it again soon!
Above recipe needs some herbs for added flavour! What can you suggest?
Marjoram, oregano, garlic summer savory, nutmeg?