This recipe calls for thinly sliced boneless pork chops and Panko, which are Japanese bread crumbs that are incredibly light and airy—more so than crackers.
| Prep Time: | 1 hr |
| Cook Time: | 50 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 50 mins |
| Servings: | 7 |
| Yield: | 6 to 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ cup chopped onion
- 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 pound ground beef
- salt to taste
- 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
- 1 (12 ounce) package manicotti shells
- 2 cups ricotta cheese
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 3 cups spaghetti sauce, divided
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules
- 2 cups half-and-half
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onions until translucent. Saute garlic for 1 minute and stir in ground beef. Cook until well browned and crumbled. Season with salt and set aside to cool.
- Cook spinach according to package directions. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add manicotti shells and parboil for half of the time recommended on the package. Drain and cover with cool water to stop the cooking process and prevent the shells from cracking.
- To the ground beef mixture add the cooked spinach and ricotta cheese. When the mixture is cool, add the beaten eggs. Spread 1/4 cup spaghetti sauce in the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish. Gently drain the manicotti shells and carefully stuff each one with the meat and cheese mixture; place shells in prepared dish. Lightly cover the dish with plastic wrap or a clean, damp towel to prevent shells from cracking.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Prepare the white sauce by melting the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in flour and chicken bouillon. Increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring constantly, until it begins to bubble. Stir in half and half and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in parsley. Pour or ladle the sauce evenly over the stuffed shells.
- Stir the basil into the remaining spaghetti sauce. Carefully pour or ladle spaghetti sauce over the white sauce, trying to layer the sauces without mixing.
- Cover and bake for 40 minutes. Remove from oven, uncover and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake, uncovered, for 10 minutes more.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 612 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 59 g |
| Cholesterol | 134 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 6 g |
| Protein | 28 g |
| Saturated Fat | 13 g |
| Sodium | 992 mg |
| Sugars | 13 g |
| Fat | 30 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
“EXCELLENT” receipt, made just like the receipt and everyone loved it! Will make it again & again♥☺
Made it with heavy cream instead of 1/2 & 1/2 like a previous review! Omg! So rich and decadent! Good as any 5 star restaurant! My Italian husband said it was the best he’s ever had! Also used mild Italian sausage in place of hamburger.
I’ve made this recipe many times over the last 5-10 years or so. With my modifications, it is one of my favorite meals. These are my modifications: ️I use Better than Boullion chicken base (2TBS) for the white sauce instead of regular boullion. ️Prego, the kind with sausage , right out of the jar, I don’t heat it on the stove or add basil before just pouring it on. ️Instead of ground beef, I use mild Italian ground sausage. ️Oh and when I don’t care how it looks, I use jumbo shells instead of manicotti noodles because they are easier to fill.
I last made this around 30 years ago, lost the recipe and this is the one I chose. I added some shredded mozzarella to the white sauce as a tweak because, well, cheese. It took a little longer because I have limited prep space but worked out well.
I used lasagna noodles because I couldn’t find manicotti shells, otherwise I followed the recipe exactly and it was fabulous! I will definitely make this again
4.5 stars. I changed the meat to 1/2 ground beef & 1/2 sausage. Also put the tomato sauce on the manicotti first, and ribboned the white sauce over the tomato sauce. I found the method of stuffing the shells with a plastic bag more difficult than just stuffing the shells by hand. I used cottage cheese instead of ricotta. The meal was rounded out with Zuppa Toscana, roasted asparagus and focaccia bread (all from this site). Italian wine was the finishing touch to this Valentine’s Day meal.
This is a great recipe, and pretty easy to make, just a little time consuming. I found using hamburger meat left the flavor a little bland, so I now use ground Italian Sausage for a more robust flavor. I also much prefer using heavy cream instead of half and half, as I like that texture and flavor profile.
This is insanely good! I substituted 1 of the two cups of heavy cream for evaluation milk because I ran out of heavy cream! Everyone loves this! Second time making it! My boss requested i make it for her!
I thought this was excellent. I made my own Ricotta cheese, which easy and good. I liked the ricotta and spinach combination. I used half ground beef and half sweet italian sausage in the mixture, and I topped it with red sauce – no white. It was really good.
Truly delicious recipe-you will not be disappointed! I used homemade manicotti and only two substitutions: ground turkey in place of beef and cottage cheese in place of ricotta. Highly recommended!
So, I ordered all the ingredients from my local grocery store by curbside to go…you know, pandemic and all. Anyhow, they were out of Manicotti so they suggested substituting Shells instead. Long story short, followed the recipe verbatim with the exception of the aforementioned pasta and made a tasty Stuffed Shells Alla Romana.
I had left over ricotta so wanted to find a recipe so I could use it up. Stuffed shells sounded like a good option. I couldnt taste the meat in the stuffing mix. I thought the white and red sauces layered on top one another was strange but I’ll give almost any food a try. I didnt like the white sauce at all and didnt like the two sauces layered either.
Okay recipe. I added REAL parmesan regiano, mozzarella and pecorino cheese (no pre shredded, it really does change the flavor and melting ability) to the bechamel and the ricotta. It was pretty bland without it.
This was delicious! I had to substitute the ricotta for lactose free mozzarella cheese. I did cup for cup and it turned out beautifully! I found there was so much white sauce left over.
Such a delicious recipe! It takes a little bit of prep work but well worth the effort. Followed the directions for the most part outside of not measuring some ingredients exactly (which who cares, we’re cooking here guys) and it cake out great… my wife had 2 servings and is already talking about making it again! This will definitely get added to the dinner rotation.
Yum! Added a little mozzarella to the filling and the top.
This was delicious. I made the noodles using the recipe on this site for manicotti noodles. The noodles were super easy to make.
I almost always tweak recipes to fit our tastes, or what I have on hand. We didn’t have manicotti shells so decided to use lasagna noodles. I used the no-cook style but precooked them for just a few minutes to make them pliable because I wanted to roll them. I used 2 lasagna shells the short way, rolled each around a good butcher shop sausage and secured them with toothpicks. We used 4 sausages. It was messy to prepare them but they turned out great. I thought there would be too much sauce for the recipe but it was just right. The recipe was delicious! We are retired seniors so in an effort to eat less, we had enough for 4 meals; I froze 2 meals and will have the second meal this week!
These were better than any manicotti dishes I’ve had in Italian restaurants! I used large shells instead of tubes because they are easier to fill.
This was good, but I totally agree with reviewers who said the 2 tablespoons of chicken bouillon granules made it WAY too salty. I can’t help but wonder if the “2 tablespoons” is a misprint, since 2 teaspoons of bouillon granules is typically the manufacturer’s recommended measurement for 2 cups of liquid.
Amazing! And..no work at all! I started to make this and asking my husband to chop the onions. He started on the onions while I gathered the garlic. Then he said, “You have other things to do, I’ll make the manicotti.” Wow! I left the kitchen immediately and later returned to thoroughly enjoy this tasty dish.