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This cheesy stuffed manicotti recipe is a family favorite in my house! I add spinach to make this dish a bit healthier and my kids don’t even realize it’s in there!
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I love pasta. It’s one of those meals that will please just about anyone and it’s usually easy to throw together!
One of my absolute favorites is manicotti. Manicotti are just big empty pasta tubes that you fill up with good stuff. Imagine the possibilities! I can think of a hundred delicious things to stuff inside of pasta!
Today we’re doing a four cheese manicotti and adding in some sauteed spinach. It adds a gorgeous color to the filling and tastes amazing here.
Manicotti Recipe Ingredients:
Manicotti
Cheese – Ricotta, Mozzarella, Parmesan, and cream cheese!
Italian Seasoning
Herbs – Dried basil, fresh parsley, chopped basil, and chopped oregano!
Olive Oil
Fresh Baby Spinach
Minced Onion
Minced Garlic
Marinara Sauce
Red Pepper Flakes
Crushed Tomatoes
Tomato Paste
Salt
Sugar
What We Love About Spinach Manicotti!
This spinach pasta recipe uses some of my favorite cheeses, and the manicotti is perfect for a rich, cheesy filling. The spinach doesn’t even get noticed by picky children among all that pasta and cheese!
How To Make Cheese Manicotti Recipe:
Pasta: You’ll start by boiling your manicotti in some salted water. Once cooked, drain the pasta water and let the manicotti cool a bit. You’ll be handling them and you don’t want to burn yourself!
While the manicotti cools a bit, prepare the filling.
Why salt the pasta? – People will tell you there are all sorts of reasons to salt the pasta water, but mainly it just adds flavor to the pasta. Use sea salt or kosher salt for the best flavor.
Cheese Filling: The best part of this four cheese pasta recipe is loading it up with all that cheese! Mix together the four cheeses, the dried basil, and the Italian seasoning.
Place the cheese filling aside for now and move on to making the spinach!
Spinach: Sauté the spinach in a little oil with some garlic and onion until the spinach is wilted. This shouldn’t take long, maybe five minutes.
Stir the spinach into the cheese filling you made in the last step and start stuffing your pasta full of it!
Tip: You can use a spoon to scoop it into the tubes, but I find it easiest to add the filling to a plastic bag, snip off the end and squirt it in!
Sauce: Layer the filled manicotti over some marinara sauce in a baking dish. You can use my recipe below for homemade marinara or you can purchase a jar.
If using store bought, I always recommend Rao’s brand. It’s my favorite marinara.
You’ll top the stuffed manicotti with more marinara and extra cheese! And finally…
Bake: When you’ve finished layering the cheese and spinach stuffed manicotti with the marinara (and more cheese!) you can go ahead and bake until the cheese has melted and it begins to brown on the top.
Sprinkle some parsley on the top and you’re all set!
This makes a great vegetarian meal, but if you want to bulk it up with some meat, use my homemade spaghetti sauce instead of the marinara.
This whole recipe is really quite easy to throw together and it has such a pretty presentation.
Who doesn’t love carbs stuffed with cheese?!
MORE PASTA RECIPES!
Chicken Spaghetti Recipe: This one is a favorite with my kids!
Shrimp Alfredo: Tastes like a fancy dish you’d get from your favorite Italian restaurant!
Baked Ziti Recipe: The creamy white sauce takes this dish over the top!
Hamburger Helper: Skip the box – my homemade version is better!
Garlic Butter Noodles: Simple comfort food!
MORE SPINACH RECIPES!
Creamed Spinach Casserole – This casserole is rich, creamy and perfect for holidays!
Spinach Artichoke Dip Pasta – Works great without the pasta as a chip dip too!
Spinach Stuffed Pork Chops – A low carb recipe, but it doesn’t taste like it!
Spinach Stuffed Chicken – Another super tasty low carb recipe.
Four Cheese Spinach Manicotti
Ingredients
For the manicotti:
- 12 ounces manicotti
- 16 ounces Ricotta cheese
- 6 ounces Mozzarella cheese shredded
- 6 ounces Parmesan shredded
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup finely chopped fresh baby Spinach
- 2 tablespoons minced onion
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 2 cups marinara sauce
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley minced
Basic Marinara Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 medium onion minced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon Red pepper flakes
- 45 ounces crushed tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons chopped basil
- 2 tablespoons chopped oregano
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
Instructions
For the manicotti:
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add in the manicotti and cook for 7 minutes. Drain.
- Set aside the pasta to cool and begin making the filling.
- In a large bowl, mix together the Ricotta cheese, 3 ounces of Mozzarella, 3 ounces of Parmesan, cream cheese, Italian seasoning, and basil.
- Heat the olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the spinach, onion, and garlic and cook until the onion is translucent and the spinach has wilted, about 5 minutes.
- Add the spinach to the cheese mixture and stir well to combine.
- When the pasta is cool enough to handle, use a small spoon to scoop the filling into the pasta. Alternately, place the filling in a plastic bag and snip off the end. Squirt the filling into the manicotti.
- Cover the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish with a thin layer of marinara sauce. Arrange your pasta in the baking dish. Cover with the remaining marinara sauce and top with the remaining cheese.
- Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted and starting to browned on top. Sprinkle with parsley before serving.
For the sauce:
- Heat the oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute until soft and fragrant, about 5 minutes.
- Add the remaining ingredients, stir to combine, and simmer for 30 minutes over low heat, stirring occasionally.
- Store sauce tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Information:
This post was originally published in 2011. It’s been updated with new photos and text in 2019. Original photo below.
Jessica V says
This is a great recipe and have made it many times. I have, however, had to make some adjustments because every time it seems that the proportions are off. Like another reviewer, the amount of filling never seems enough. I’m able to find 8 ounce boxes of manicotti shells at the store and if I skimp on the filling a little bit I have just enough to fill those. I do boil them beforehand so I don’t know why there’s not enough. I’ve just learned that one 8 ounce box is plenty and to add a little more of the other cheeses. I also find that the cheese isn’t quite melted at the 20 minute mark. It usually needs 30-40 minutes in my oven, but I do find that my oven runs a little cool. All that said, this is a great recipe that even my picky son will eat. I add way more spinach than what the recipe calls for, but he doesn’t even realize he’s eating it. He tells me this is one of his favorite dishes!
Karly says
I’m so glad you enjoy the recipe! I’m sorry the filling is off for you – I might be a little skimpy when stuffing them myself. 🙂
Kate says
So cheesy! My family loved this.
Lori S says
Several let downs with this recipe:
1. I only had 8oz box manicotti (1/2 of what recipe called for) and only had enough filling to make 9 shells (almost 1/2 of what recipe said) so not enough to feed my family.
2. They took over 35 min to bake at the listed oven temp and I still had to broil @ the end just to get it done.
3. The filling was sooo loose that it just poured out of the noodles when scooped out of the pan.
Karly says
I’m sorry this one didn’t work out for you. Did you boil the manicotti before filling and baking? If not, that would explain why there wasn’t enough filling and the timing issues. I’m not sure why it would take so long to cook otherwise – you’re really just warming the cheese in the oven so there’s not a lot of waiting for it to be ‘done.’
Richard H Reed says
add a whole carrot to homemade sauce to replace granulated sugar . granulated
Richard H Reed says
hi .Where is rhe recipe for your homemade ricotta ?
Karly says
Hi Richard! I’ve never shared it…I just followed this recipe here: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/fresh-homemade-ricotta-234282
Hilda Sterner says
This looks heavenly! Definitely pinning for later. Thanks for sharing!
Linda Waldrep says
Can your Basic Marinara Sauce be frozen. I usually have some leftover after using what is called for in a recipe?
Karly says
I haven’t tried, but I’m sure it would freeze fine! 🙂
Carol Goss says
I love this dish. It looks like you have really done something when you serve it. I haven’t fixed any variety of this in a long time. I pinned it because it took be a great take and bake dish.
Mary Ponikvar says
A sincere thank you for sharing so many wonderful family recipes. I look forward to receiving your emails.
Francine Paston says
I will be making this this week.
Karly says
Enjoy! 🙂
Carla and Robert Skidmore says
The recipe looks wonderful. I gave you only four stars because my husband is gluten intolerant, basically, he has celiac. This is a relatively “new” condition, the last ten years, caused by the newer hybrid wheat. Do you know where I can obtain a gluten-free manicotti? I see G.F. spaghetti, penne, rotini, and fettuccini.
Karly says
No, I’m sorry, I don’t have much experience with gluten free products.
Robert & Carla Skidmore says
Hi Karly,
Love many of your recipes, have tried them and they are super. However, please check out folks who have Celiac Disease. It can be present at birth or acquired as an adult, due, as I mentioned, to the hybrid wheat that withstands both drought and torrential rain. This is great for our farmers who do need all the help that they can get, but it is bad for those, like my husband, who cannot tolerate Gluten, the protein in wheat, barley, and some oats. Thanks in advance for you going to the trouble of checking this out.
Karly says
Hi Carla!
I’m sorry your husband is dealing with Celiac. I know it’s a hard disease to manage – they seem to add gluten to everything. Brands seem to have created a lot of gluten free products over the past few years, so I hope that’s helpful and makes it a little easier. I know what the disease is, I just don’t develop recipes that are specifically gluten free or use gluten free products myself as my family doesn’t have the need and this blog is more of a general recipe site without a focus on special diets. 🙂