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Perfectly tender manicotti pasta tubes are generously stuffed with a rich, creamy blend of cheese and spinach, then smothered in a sweet and tangy marinara sauce. This classic Italian-American favorite is bold, comforting, and packed with flavor. Whether you’re cooking for a cozy weeknight dinner or a special gathering, homemade manicotti is always a crowd-pleaser. These ridged pasta tubes—like oversized penne—are made for holding all that cheesy goodness. And let’s be real: cheese and spinach? That combo never misses.
A creamy cheese and spinach filling and al dente manicotti shells pair up with a rich and hearty wine-infused marinara sauce for a cozy meal the whole family will love.
Also try this creative ravioli lasagna, hearty ricotta beef stuffed pasta shells, classic cannelloni, and delicious eggplant parmigiana.
Why You’ll Love It
A classic dish: Manicotti is an Italian-American favorite when it comes to popular pasta recipes. You can enjoy the classic Italian-American restaurant experience, just in the comfort of your own kitchen!
So delicious: Creamy cheese, tangy marinara sauce, fresh spinach and herbs, and subtle hints of white wine and garlic make this the kind of mouthwatering meal you’ll crave again and again.
Straightforward to prepare: You won’t find this to be a difficult recipe at all. You’ll be making the sauce (or you can use a jar!) and making the filling, then stuffing the manicotti shells, arranging them in a baking dish, pouring the marinara sauce on top, and baking it to perfection in the oven.
Spinach Ricotta Manicotti Ingredients
A complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Manicotti shells: These look just like giant penne pasta tubes. It’s easiest to grab a package of dried ones but you could also make your own using fresh pasta sheets like with cannelloni.
Aromatics: Onion and garlic add savory flavors to the tomato sauce.
White wine: Something dry would be best, or you could use medium-dry instead.
Canned tomatoes: I like to use San Marzano whole tomatoes and then crush them by hand.
Basil: Fresh basil adds a wonderfully fragrant and subtle aroma and flavor to the dish.
Fresh spinach: A tasty part of the manicotti filling. It’s important to squeeze lots of water out of the spinach after draining it – you’ll be amazed just how much water it holds onto!
Cheese: Shredded mozzarella cheese, ricotta, parmesan cheese, and pecorino romano cheese add wonderfully creamy, tangy flavors to the filling.
Eggs: To bind the filling.
Parsley: Some goes into the filling and the rest is for garnishing the dish.
How to Make Manicotti
For more detailed instructions with weights and measurements, jump to the printable recipe card.
Prepare the marinara sauce: Sauté the onions in olive oil and then the garlic and oregano. Deglaze the pan with white wine and simmer the tomatoes in there too. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste and add fresh chopped basil.
Cook the pasta: Follow the package instructions but cook the pasta for a minute or two less so it’s al dente. Transfer it on to a greased baking sheet and spritz with cooking spray.
Prepare the ricotta filling: Wilt the spinach and transfer it into a bowl. Squeeze out as much water as you can and then chop the blanched spinach. Mix in the cheeses, eggs, parsley, and some salt and pepper. Put this ricotta mixture in a Ziploc bag. Snip off a corner.
Assemble the dish: Add half the marinara sauce to a baking dish. Squeeze the cheese filling into the manicotti tubes and arrange stuffed manicotti on top of the marinara sauce in a single layer. Add the remaining sauce on top of the stuffed pasta and cover the dish with foil.
Bake the manicotti: Bake it in the oven until the pasta is done. Discard the foil and give it another five minutes. Serve hot, garnished with parmesan cheese, basil and parsley.
Substitutions and Variations
Gluten-free option: If you want a gluten-free version, use gluten-free manicotti pasta tubes (maybe these rice-based ones!)
Cheese: You can use any combination of Italian cheeses you like for this as long as you have ricotta inside too.
Spice it up: Adding chili flakes or red pepper flakes to your marinara would spice things up if that’s what you like.
Marinara sauce: If you’d like to use store bought marinara sauce, feel free. Just make sure you have at least 4 cups of it. You can also try this similar garlic marinara recipe.
Canned tomatoes: Sometimes you just can’t find the right ingredients. If you can only source regular crushed tomatoes, grab those instead.
Ricotta: Whole milk ricotta is the tastiest but you can low-fat ricotta if you want to.
Pecorino romano: Fontina or asiago cheese would work instead.
Serving Suggestions
Appetizers: Begin your Italian meal with antipasto skewers or minestrone soup.
Side dishes: A simple Italian chopped salad or lemon parmesan salad would pair well. You can also serve garlic bread if you want more carbs!
Desserts: Finish with strawberry tiramisu or maritozzi cream buns.
How to Store Spinach and Ricotta Manicotti
Store: Let the manicotti cool and the store it in an airtight container for up to 4 days in the refrigerator.
Freeze: Put the manicotti in an airtight container, cover it with plastic wrap on top to form a seal and then put the lid on. Freeze it for up to 2 months.
Thaw: Defrost the manicotti in the refrigerator overnight.
Reheat: Warm it back up in the oven or in the microwave.
Top Tips
Drain the spinach well: It’s very important the wilted spinach is squeezed dry. Leaving some water clinging to it will make the manicotti filling running and watery and it won’t stay in the tubes.
Minimize washing up: You can use the same pan you made the sauce in to cook the pasta and then the spinach if you don’t want to more pans dirty.
Filling the tubes: I used a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off but you could use a piping bag or pastry bag. You might need to squeeze in filling from both ends of the tube to get it all the way through.
Let it rest: I recommend you let the dish sit for 10 minutes before garnishing and serving. It’s going to be piping hot when it comes out of the oven. Also, letting it rest for a bit helps it firm up for neater servings.
Ricotta and Spinach Manicotti FAQs
If you want to bake this at a later date, you can hold the manicotti in the fridge uncooked for up to a day before popping it in the oven. If you want to freeze it before cooking, make sure you use a baking dish that is freezer-safe. Once assembled, make a seal with plastic wrap on top of the manicotti before covering it and putting it in the freezer. Thaw in the fridge overnight. When ready to bake, remove it from the fridge and let it come to room temperature as the oven heats up. It shouldn’t need extra baking time when baked from room temperature.
You can but frozen spinach holds even more water than freshly wilted spinach, so keep squeezing it until you’ve removed as much water as possible to avoid a watery filling and watering down the sauce.
Spinach and Ricotta Manicotti Recipe
Manicotti
Equipment
- Pot Medium
- Baking Dish 9 x 13-Inch
Ingredients
For the Marinara Sauce:
- ¼ Cup olive oil
- ½ yellow onion, finely chopped
- 4 Cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 Teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ Cup white wine, dry or medium-dry
- 1 Can whole tomatoes, San Marzano, crushed by hand, 28 Ounces
- salt and pepper, to taste
- ¼ Cup basil leaves, fresh, finely chopped
For the Manicotti Filling
- 8 Ounces manicotti
- 5 to 6 Ounces spinach, fresh
- 15 Ounces ricotta cheese, whole milk
- 1 Cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
- ½ Cup parmesan, grated
- ½ Cup pecorino romano, grated
- 2 eggs
- ¼ Cup parsley, fresh, finely chopped
- salt and pepper, to taste
- cooking spray, as needed
To Garnish:
- parmesan cheese, freshly grated
- basil, freshly chopped
- parsley, freshly chopped
Instructions
Make the Marinara Sauce:
- Heat a medium-sized pot over a medium high heat and add olive oil. Sauté the onions with a pinch of salt until soft and translucent but not browned, about 8 minutes.
- Add the garlic and dried oregano and sauté for 1 to 2 minutes, until fragrant.
- Turn the heat to high and pour in the white wine, deglazing the pan, 3 or 4 minutes.
- Pour in the San Marzano tomatoes and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Toss in the finely chopped basil right before it’s done cooking.
- You can leave the sauce in the pot or you can transfer the sauce to a bowl if you need to use it again for boiling the pasta and spinach in the next step.
Cook the Pasta:
- In a medium pot, cook your pasta to al dente, 1 or 2 minutes under the recommended time on the package.
- Using a slotted spoon, transfer the pasta onto a baking sheet greased with cooking spray.
- Spritz the pasta lightly with more cooking spray. Don’t worry if you don’t get the insides of the tubes.
Make the Manicotti Filling:
- Using the same water as your pasta, boil the spinach until just wilted, about 1 minute.
- With a slotted spoon, remove the spinach and transfer to a small bowl. Rinse the spinach with cold water then squeeze out all the water. It’s really important to get as much water out as you possibly can.
- Roughly chop it and transfer the spinach to a medium bowl.
- To the same bowl, add the ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, pecorino romano, eggs, parsley, and some salt and pepper to taste.
- Combine with a spoon.
- Now put the mixture into a gallon-sized Ziploc bag and cut the tip off one of the corners, big enough for the mixture to move through the hole.
Assemble the Manicotti:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
- Tear a sheet of aluminum foil big enough to cover the dish and grease with cooking spray on one side. Set aside.
- Pour ½ of the marinara sauce on the bottom of the baking dish, swirling the dish around to evenly coat the bottom.
- Squeeze the cheese and spinach mixture into each manicotti tube. You may need to pipe it into both ends. Lay the filled tubes on top of the sauce in a single layer.
- Top the pasta with the other half of the marinara sauce, either covering the tubes completely or you can just pour it down the middle of the tubes.
- Wrap the baking dish with the greased aluminum foil and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the pasta is fully cooked.
- Remove the foil from the baking dish and bake for a further 5 minutes.
- Let it cool slightly before garnishing with the grated parmesan cheese, finely chopped basil, and parsley on top. Serve hot.
Notes
Minimize washing up: You can use the same pan you made the sauce in to cook the pasta and then the spinach if you don’t want to more pans dirty.
Filling the tubes: I used a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off but you could use a piping bag or pastry bag. You might need to squeeze in filling from both ends of the tube to get it all the way through.
Let it rest: I recommend you let the dish sit for 10 minutes before garnishing and serving. It’s going to be piping hot when it comes out of the oven. Also, letting it rest for a bit helps it firm up for neater servings.
Nutrition
Stuffed manicotti in tomato sauce makes a delicious family dinner. Pasta tubes are filled with a creamy cheese and spinach, covered in marinara sauce and baked to perfection. This is a rich, hearty dish that’s one of the most popular options in Italian-American restaurants everywhere. It’s not a hard recipe to make and it pairs with anything from a salad to vegetables or even more carbs in the form of garlic bread or your preferred Italian style bread.
Other Recipes to Try
Bella Bucchiotti
Bella Bucchiotti is a Canadian-based syndicated food, travel, and lifestyle writer, photographer, and creator at xoxoBella. She founded xoxoBella in 2015, where she shares her love for food, dogs, sustainability, fitness, crafts, outdoor adventures, travel, and philanthropy to encourage others to run the extra mile, try new recipes, visit unfamiliar places, and stand for a cause. Bella creates stress-free and family-friendly recipes for weeknight dinners and festive feasts.
This manicotti was everything I wanted—cheesy, comforting, and full of flavor. The spinach and cheese filling was rich and creamy, and the marinara brought the perfect balance of sweet and tangy.