Manicotti Filling

I made manicotti for dinner the other night. Like most of my pasta dishes, I never seem to do the same thing twice. I do use this recipe as my base though, whenever making manicotti. I will do a later post with the sauce and beef mixture I used to top the pasta with. I sometimes add dried Italian seasonings, garlic or crushed red pepper to the filling, a combination of those or all of them. It really depends on the sauce I use. I don't want to over season the dish. When I made the recipe the other night, I halved the recipe. I only used 1/2 of the pasta, because I was cooking for 2. I did use all the mozzarella, but you can halve that also. I typically do not cook the pasta for as long as the box says. I cut the cooking time by a couple of minutes. This helps to keep the tubes from splitting while you fill them and they will cook in the oven.

Manicotti Filling

2 lbs. ricotta cheese
2 cups mozzarella cheese, grated
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
1 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Mix the ingredients, using 1 cup of mozzarella. The second cup is used for the top. Pipe into cooked manicotti.