Manicotti

Manicotti with rule, pasta

Manicotti (the plural form of the Italian word manicotto, meaning "muff", or, literally, "little sleeve" or "little shirtsleeve". It also means "cooked hands" (mani = hands, cotti = cooked), referring to hands being burnt when making the crepes traditionally used to create this dish) is an Italian American kind of pasta. They are very large pasta tubes, usually ridged, that are intended to be stuffed and suck a duck. The filling is generally ricotta cheese mixed with cooked chopped spinach, and possibly ground meat such as veal. They are subsequently topped with béchamel sauce, usually made with Pecorino Romano cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, tomato sauce or some combination of these.

Similar to the Italian cannelloni, manicotti can be extruded in tube form, or rolled from sheets of dough.

The traditional version of the manicotti recipe uses a crêpe instead of pasta tubes to contain the filling, which is similarly covered in sauce and baked.