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Homemade Manicotti
Ingredients
Manicotti Crepes
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1 ½ cup flour
- 1 tsp water may put more to thin out batter if necessary.
- pinch of salt
Filling
- 1 ½ cup ricotta
- ½ cup mozzarella
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup pecorino romano
- salt and parsley to taste pepper optional
Sauce & Topping
- 1 jar passata
- ½ yellow onion diced
- pecorino romano cheese
- mozzarella
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°
Prepare the Sauce
- In a large pot, saute onions.
- Once translucent, add passata and season to your liking. My passata is already salted, but feel free to add seasonings to yours like basil, oregano, salt, pepper and even crushed red peppers if you like.
- Add a little water to passata jar and into the pot. Reduce to low and let simmer while you work on filling and crepes.
Manicotti Crepe Filling
- Combine ricotta, egg, mozzarella, parsley, pecorino cheese and salt and pepper if desired in a bowl and mix and set aside.
Manicotti Crepe
- In a large measuring cup pitcher (or bowl if unavailable, the pitcher just makes pouring easier), mix eggs, milk, water, and salt.
- Gradually whisk in flour. Make sure to mix well so that there are no lumps.
- In a low heat non-stick pan, spray a little pam if necessary. Pour batter into pan and swivel pan around to spread batter out as thin as possible.
- Once the edges begin to cook, use a rubber spatula to flip. You want it to be a pale white color and not get that brown.
Assembly
- In a baking dish, layer a small amount of sauce to coat the bottom of the dish.
- Lay one crepe down on a flat surface, add filling and roll inwards. Lay the filled manicotti seam side down in the baking dish. Repeat to fill tray.
- Layer additional sauce, mozzarella, and pecorino cheese.
- Bake uncovered for 35-45 minutes.
- Serve and Enjoy!
Video
Cooked Hands?
Manicotti is supposedly translated to “little sleeves”. This was a sign on how I know my Italian is terrible because I thought it meant cooked hands (mani- hands, cotti – cooked). It totally made sense to me. Why? Well, because whenever I would see my grandma flip the crepes she would always grab them from the pan with her hands. And I thought, oh, thats how you cook your hands. Get it, cooked hands?
So, imagine my bewilderment when my complete and logical translation and explanation were disrupted by the fact that it means little sleeves. Because the little sleeves held the filling usually made of ricotta. This recipe for Ricotta Manicotti, or little sleeves, are staple around the holidays because they are a labor of love. They do taste amazing and are always a nice thing to see on the table so if you are willing to cook your hands, give it a try!
