Cheesy Beef Manicotti
A few years ago I shared a four cheese manicotti with meat sauce recipe and when I set out to update the photos I thought, hey, why not stuff the manicotti with the cheese and beef? So, here we are today with a spin off of that original recipe – cheesy beef manicotti.
So, sadly, those photos on the old post are still the same, but now we have a reinvented recipe that represents something I love about cooking – it’s so easy to take old favorite recipes and just switch them up a bit to make them seem like new.
Everything’s from scratch with this one, but I wouldn’t give you side-eye if you decide to take a short-cut and use your favorite jarred sauce instead of simmering your own for thirty minutes. Sometimes it’s nice to take our time in the kitchen, but I get that there are times that call for speed and efficiency. No harm, no foul.
If you do make your own sauce, using the recipe I’ve outlined below, I recommend using San Marzano tomatoes – they are pricier, but their flavor just can’t be beat. Seriously, those are some good canned tomatoes.
This recipe makes enough for 12 stuffed manicotti and I like to freeze half of the manicotti since it’s just the two of us. I just assemble them, top them off with sauce and pop it in the freezer. It’s nice to have a comforting pasta dinner in the freezer for an easy dinner on a busy weeknight. All I do is let it thaw for a few hours in the fridge, top it with grated cheese, and then let it bake until it’s nice and bubbly.
On the other hand, if you’re feeding more than a few people go ahead and bake them all up in a 9 x 13 baking dish and you’ll get six servings. Some bread and a nice salad served alongside means you’ll have happily stuffed dinner guests at the end of the evening.
What’s old is new again with this cheesy beef manicotti – I hope you give it a try!
- For the ground beef
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound ground beef
- ½ medium yellow onion, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloved, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- For the Sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ medium yellow onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 2 (24 ounce) cans whole tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- For the cheese filling
- ½ cup ricotta cheese
- ¼ cup grated provolone
- ¼ cup grated asiago
- 4 ounces fresh mozzarella, cubed
- 12 manicotti pasta shells
- In a large pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add the ground beef and, using a wooden spoon or spatula, break it apart as it browns. Add in the chopped onion, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Let it all cook together until the ground beef is browned and the onion and garlic have softened. Once cooked remove it all from the pan and set it aside to cool.
- In the same pan, heat another tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat before adding the additional onion and garlic. Add the balsamic vinegar and scrape up all the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Next, add in all of the tomatoes. Bring it all to a strong simmer and then reduce the heat so that it’s lightly simmering. Using a wooded spoon or spatula, gently break apart the tomatoes. Add the thyme leaves, parsley, salt and pepper. Let the sauce simmer for at least 30 minutes. Once it’s simmered you can either keep it the way it is if you like a chunkier sauce or, using an immersion blender or stand blender, puree the sauce until it’s smooth.
- Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the manicotti and boil them for about five minutes or so. Drain them in a colander and then lay them out in a single layer on paper towels to cool.
- While the pasta is boiling, prepare the cheese filling. Mix all of the cheeses together in a large bowl until well combined. Stir in the cooled ground beef.
- Brush about a quarter cup or so of the sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish.
- To assemble the manicotti. Stand up one of the manicotti. Stuff it with the meat and cheese filling (the easiest way is to use your hands). Gently press the filling into the pasta until it’s filled end-to-end. Place the stuffed manicotti in the baking dish in a single layer.
- Once all of the manicotti are in the dish, pour the sauce over the top. Use whichever cheese you like and grate it over the top of the pasta (I like to use a mixture of all three, about ½ cup total).
- Bake at 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until the sauce is bubbly and the cheese is melted on top. Let stand a few minutes before serving.
The post Cheesy Beef Manicotti appeared first on Girl Gone Gourmet.
Source: http://www.girlgonegourmet.com/2015/12/cheesy-beef-manicotti.html
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