Cheesy Vegetable Manicotti

  • Level: Easy
  • Yield: 4 to 6 servings
  • Total: 1 hr 25 min
  • Active: 30 min
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Ingredients

Filling:

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced 

1 medium yellow onion, chopped 

1 small zucchini, finely diced 

1 small yellow squash, finely diced 

Salt and freshly ground black pepper 

One 15-ounce container whole-milk ricotta 

1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

3 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

1 large egg, beaten 

Tomato Sauce:

One 28-ounces can whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes

1 teaspoon salt 

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

Manicotti:

Neutral oil or nonstick cooking spray, for the baking dish

12 manicotti shells, cooked according to package instructions and drained 

1 1/2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

  1. For the filling: Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and onion and cook until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the zucchini and yellow squash, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until the squash softens but is not mushy, about 4 minutes. Pour the mixture into a medium bowl and let cool.
  2. Add the ricotta, Parmesan, parsley, egg, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper to the cooled vegetables. Stir to combine.
  3. For the tomato sauce: In a food processor, pulse the tomatoes with their juices until they are coarsely ground or chop the tomatoes by hand. Transfer them to a bowl, add the salt and pepper, then stir in the basil.
  4. For the manicotti: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with oil or cooking spray.
  5. Transfer the filling mixture to a large resealable plastic bag. Snip a large hole out of one corner of the bag with scissors and use the bag to pipe the mixture into the cooked manicotti shells.
  6. Spread about 1 cup of the tomato sauce on the bottom of the baking dish. Place the manicotti shells into the baking dish. Spread the remaining sauce over the manicotti. Top with the mozzarella and Parmesan. Bake until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is melted, 35 to 40 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

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Kelly Place

Excellent and worth the effort. Prep is significant… have a cooking buddy with you, if possible. My Mom and I made this, and followed the recipe precisely; except that we only filled 11 instead of 12 shells, and only baked 4, freezing the other 7 for later meals. We froze the extra sauce, which was also very good in its own right! Only other note is that, being January, we used freeze dried herbs, vs. fresh. We will do this again … I want to try a spinach and mushroom combination in lieu of the squash, although the little bites of squash were delicious.

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