Easy Spinach Manicotti

This manicotti full of spinach and ricotta and topped with cheese is a great and easy vegetarian meal or a crowd-pleasing side dish.

Course Main

Cuisine Italian

Keyword easy maniocotti, spinach manicotti

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 40

Total Time 55

Servings servings

Calories 450kcal

Author justalittlebitofbacon

6 cups marinara sauce
12 oz ricotta cheese, part skim or whole milk
3/4 cup (6 oz) frozen chopped spinach thawed and squeezed dry
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella, divided, 1 1/2 cups for the filling, the rest for topping
2 eggs
1 tsp kosher salt
16 short lasagna noodles, De Cecco brand
olive oil

Preheat oven 375F.
Begin heating marinara sauce so that it's simmering when you are ready to assemble the manicotti. Then fill a large pot with salted water for the lasagna noodles and put it on high heat.
Puree ricotta cheese and spinach in a food processor until smooth, about 20 seconds. Put ricotta mixture into a large bowl. Add parmesan cheese, 1 1/2 cups of the mozzarella, eggs and salt. Mix well and set aside.
Once the water is boiling for the pasta, add the noodles and cook them for 5 minutes. Drain and toss with olive oil so they don't stick together.
Set out a 9x13 casserole dish and cover the bottom with marinara sauce, about 1 cup.
Lay out one of the noodles and put about 1/4 cup of the filling near the end of the noodle closest to you. Roll up the noodle from the end near you to the other end.
Put the rolled, filled noodle into the casserole dish. Pack the manicotti into the dish until you have them all in there.
Cover the manicotti thoroughly with marinara sauce, 2-3 cups. Then sprinkle the remaining mozzarella over the top.
Cover the casserole dish with foil and bake for 30 mins.
Remove the foil and bake for 10 minutes more. If desired, top with chopped basil or parsley.
Serve with more parmesan at the table.

Marinara Sauce: You can make your own with my authentic marinara sauce recipe or use your favorite brand of sauce. I often make my own, but for the ease of a weeknight dinner, jarred sauce will work just fine.
Noodles: You can use no-boil noodles by softening them briefly in hot water, and then draining and tossing them with oil as I direct for the standard noodles. However, I personally find no-boil noodles to be difficult to work with and still require me to heat water and dirty a pot. De Cecco noodles are short and wide and very easy to work with, so I recommend those for this recipe.

Calories: 450kcal