You will love how healthy and easy this baked manicotti recipe is! This no-boil version uses a creamy broccoli filling, quick tomato sauce, and burrata cheese baked in the oven until golden and bubbling. A delicious, comforting vegetarian dinner!
Here’s a pasta lover’s dream: baked manicotti filled with a savory mixture of broccoli, ricotta, and mozzarella, bathed in a quick marinara sauce, and topped with Burrata Cheese. This cozy baked pasta dish is full of flavor yet packed with nutrients from the broccoli. It’s a delicious vegetarian dinner full of comfort and flavor.
Absolutely stunning! I love how you sneak veggies into everything 🙂 truly was so much fun to make and an absolute hit at my dinner table!
Why you’ll love this Manicotti recipe!
The no-boil stuffed manicotti cooks right in the sauce, saving you the extra step of boiling the pasta, making it easy to fill.
This baked manicotti recipe is surprisingly light, and the broccoli plays the starring role here. Perfect for Sunday meal prep for the busy work week, or delicious enough for your special holiday dinner.
Manicotti Recipe Ingredients
- Manicotti shells: You’ll need uncooked manicotti shells - they’re easiest for filling and cook right in the sauce.
- Broccoli: Broccoli adds beautiful green color, abundant nutrients, and a savory, comforting taste!
- Onion and garlic cloves: Sautéed and added to both the filling and the sauce for pungent, aromatic flavor.
- Diced tomatoes: Use canned diced tomatoes with their juices, or crushed or whole tomatoes.
- Maple syrup: Or substitute honey or sugar.
- Dried Italian seasoning: Dried thyme or oregano works well, too.
- Whole milk ricotta: Or, you can make this vegan with our tofu ricotta!
- Egg: Optional, but helps bind the filling and adds richness.
- Fresh basil: Adds a fresh, herby flavor to the filling - save extra for garnish!
- Lemon zest: Brightens the filling with citrusy flavor.
- Nutmeg: Adds a touch of warm and subtle sweetness to the filling.
- Romano and mozzarella cheese: You can substitute Parmesan cheese for the Romano, or for a vegan version, use vegan Parmesan and vegan mozzarella!
- Burrata: I like to add two burrata balls for extra depth and richness, but this is optional!
Variations
- Use lasagna noodles. Grease a 9×13 baking dish, and layer, starting with 1/3 of the sauce. Add uncooked noodles, 1/2 of the filling, 1/3 of the sauce, then noodles, the other half of the filling, more noodles, then the last 1/3 of the sauce. Top with Burrata. Press down a little, top with parchment and foil. Bake at 400F for 40-50 minutes (until easily pierced with a fork), then uncover, and bake until golden, about 10-15 minutes.
- Make it vegan! Make our vegan Tofu Ricotta, skip the egg, and add vegan cheese. Make sure the filling is tasty, adjusting the salt if necessary.
- Use store-bought marinara. If you wish to use store-bought marinara, water it down with 1/2 cup of water. You’ll need 3 1/2 cups total.
How to Make Baked Manicotti
1. Steam the broccoli. Add 6 cups of broccoli to a steamer basket and steam until just barely tender. Be careful not to overcook, as you want to preserve the bright green color.
2. Sauté the onions and garlic. While the broccoli steams, sauté the onions and garlic in olive oil until fragrant and tender.
3. Blend the sauce. Place half of the onion mixture into a blender with the rest of the tomato sauce ingredients and blend until smooth.
4. Make the filling. Chop up the cooked broccoli and mix the filling in a large bowl, adding egg, creamy ricotta, basil, sautéed onions and garlic, and spices.
5. Assemble the manicotti. Pour half of the quick marinara sauce on the bottom of a greased 9×13-inch baking dish.
Fill each uncooked manicotti shell using a piping bag, large ziplock bag (with the corner cut off) or a narrow spoon. Arrange on top of the sauce in a single layer.
Dot some of the extra cheese filling on each end of the manicotti pasta (or over the top of the sauce). Cover with the remaining sauce.
Here, I had a little extra of the broccoli cheese mixture, so I dotted it over the top. Now, this is optional, but totally delicious…add burrata cheese (or fresh mozzarella cheese). Slice 1-2 balls of creamy burrata cheese and place it over top.
6. Bake. Bake the manicotti in a 400F oven for 40 minutes, covered tightly with foil. You need a tight seal to cook the pasta. Remove foil and bake 10 more minutes. Sprinkle with fresh basil ribbons right before serving.
Chef’s Tips
- Save time by prepping some of the components ahead of time! You can blend the tomato sauce and mix the filling 1-2 days before assembling.
- Steam the broccoli until just barely tender. This preserves the vibrant green color!
- While you can boil the manicotti shells before baking, it is much easier to stuff the pasta before it has cooked. Plus, it saves time - the pasta cooks directly in the sauce! If you boil the manicotti, be sure to drain them well and rinse under cold water for easier handling.
- Use a piping bag or ziplock bag with the corner cut off to easily fill each manicotti shell.
- Don’t waste any of the broccoli ricotta filling. If you have extra, add dollops over the top of the sauce.
- Cover the pan tightly with foil. Create a tight seal with foil - this is essential for cooking the pasta shells thoroughly!
Serving Suggestions
Serve with a leafy green salad and some crusty bread! Here are some of our favorite pairings:
Meal Prep, Storage & Reheating
- Meal prep: Make the blended marinara sauce and the ricotta filling ahead of time, or assemble the whole thing and store it before baking it. You can also bake it ahead of time, bring it to room temperature, and reheat it when ready to serve.
- Refrigerator: Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- Freezer: Top the manicotti with a layer of parchment or plastic wrap, then aluminum foil, and cover tightly to prevent freezer burn. Store for up to 3 months.
- Reheating: If frozen, thaw overnight and bring to room temperature before reheating. Reheat in a 350F oven for 20-30 minutes.
Healthy, delicious Broccoli Stuffed Manicotti. A cozy, homemade vegetarian meal that can be made ahead! Perfect for weeknight dinners or the holiday table.
Enjoy the Broccoli Manicotti and have a great weekend.
xoxo
More Italian Recipes You Might Enjoy
Watch how to Make Manicotti!
After you try this Manicotti recipe, let us know how it turns out in the comments below. Your review will help other readers, too! Sign up here to join our community and receive our latest recipes and weekly newsletter! xoxo Sylvia
Baked Manicotti Recipe
- Prep Time: 45
- Cook Time: 50
- Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Main, Pasta, vegetarian
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American, Italian
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
You will love how easy this manicotti recipe is! This no-boil recipe uses a creamy, zesty broccoli filling, a quick tomato sauce, and burrata cheese baked in the oven until golden and bubbling. A delicious, comforting vegetarian dinner!
Ingredients
Quick Tomato Sauce (or sub jarred marinara sauce, see notes)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 4–6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 14-ounce can diced tomatoes, with juices ( or crushed or whole)
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup, honey or sugar
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning ( or thyme or oregano)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Filling
- 12 ounces broccoli florets (about 5-6 cups raw)
- 15-ounces whole milk ricotta (or make the vegan tofu ricotta), 2 cups
- 1 egg (optional)
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (plus more for garnish)
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/8– 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 cup shredded romano or parmesan (or vegan parm)
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella (or vegan mozzarella)
Manicotti
- 12 uncooked manicotti shells (7 ounces)
- 2 burrata balls- optional, but delicious.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F
- Steam the broccoli until just barely tender, (not too soft!) Let cool.
- Tomato Sauce: At the same time, in a saute pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat and saute onion 3-4 minutes, stirring. Add garlic, lower the heat to medium, and saute until golden and tender, 4-5 minutes.
- Divide. Place half of the sauteed onions/garlic mixture in a blender (for the sauce) and the other half in a medium bowl (for the filling).
- Blend the tomato sauce: Add the canned tomatoes (and their juices) to the blender, (with 1/2 of the sauteed onions),water, salt, maple, Italian seasoning, and olive oil. Blend until smooth, set aside.
- Combine the filling: Chop up the steamed broccoli and add it to the bowl with the sauteed onions and garlic. Add the ricotta, egg, basil, lemon zest, salt, pepper, nutmeg and stir with a fork. Add the cheeses. If going the vegan route, taste for salt and pepper, adding more if you like. Place the broccoli filling in a large piping bag ( or large zip lock bag- cutting off the corner to fit inside the manicotti).
- Assemble: Coat the bottom and sides of a 13 x 9 inch baking dish with olive oil. Pour half the tomato sauce to cover the bottom (about 1 3/4 cups). Using the piping bag, generously fill 12 uncooked, dry, manicotti shells (getting filling all the way to the middle) and nestle in the sauce. Dot the edges of the manicotti with the extra filling. Cover with the remaining sauce. It will seem a little runny but the uncooked manicotti will soak up much of the moisture here. Dot with any remaining filling if you like. Top with optional Burrata Cheese. Cover tightly with foil.
- Bake: Bake 50 minutes at 400 F. Uncover, test that manicotti is tender (check with a sharp knife) then bake 10 more minutes, or until beautifully golden.
- Garnish with basil ribbons.
Notes
VEGAN: I have not made this vegan, but I suspect you could. Make the tofu ricotta, skip the egg and use vegan cheese. Taste the filling and make sure it is flavorful, adding more salt if needed.
You can also use store-bought marinara but add 1/2 cup water. It is necessary to thin it out just a bit with this uncooked pasta. You will need 3 1/2 cups total, including water.
Lastly, you can cook the manicotti first if you prefer, then fill, up to you.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 Manicotti with Burrata Cheese
- Calories: 539
- Sugar: 8.9 g
- Sodium: 671.8 mg
- Fat: 28.4 g
- Saturated Fat: 13.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 44.6 g
- Fiber: 4.4 g
- Protein: 29 g
- Cholesterol: 101.3 mg
Absolutely delicious! Made this last night and it was a smashing success! We will definitely make this again. And I have sent all my friends and family the recipe link as well!
Awesome to hear! I love this one too and it’s really not super hard, right? Thanks so much for sharing!
I was intimidated at first because I’m not a seasoned cook, but this was very easy thanks to the way your recipe was written. I worked in stages and it was a piece of cake!
Perfect, so happy to hear this. It is our goal to make it easy and doable! Really appreciate the review.
So great to hear! Glad it was easy for you!
What a fabulous idea! And it’s so pretty. I have a pescatarian in the family, so I’m going to serve this on Thanksgiving. Thanks!
Perfect! Let us know how it goes over.
Hello I’m wondering if this dish can be made ahead and then frozen. My apologies if this question has already been addressed. I did check the comments section but didn’t see that it had.
Thank you. Your recipes are all my go to’s. So delicious
I think it would freeze fine!
Thank you!
One of the 2 summer evenings in Minnesota this summer when it wasn’t 90+ degrees, I made this easy and super delicious recipe. I haven’t been able to find manicotti shells anywhere, so made it like a lasagna which worked just fine. Will definitely be putting this recipe in our colder month rotation! I love your blog, Sylvia and the photos are amazingly beautiful, encouraging me to make more and more of your recipes. Thanks so much for helping me make meals worthy of compliments! 🙂
Awww.. thanks Ceejay. Appreciate this. Glad you gave it a go with the lasagna noodles- and happy it was enjoyed!
This was fantastic! I made it yesterday and it was super simple to put together. I had to make it as a lasagne as my local store didn’t have manicotti or cannelloni shells, but it was still delicious. The lemon zest really adds something special. I was worried by the marinara sauce as it was so watery, but it came out perfect once baked!
Awesome to hear!
Absolutely stunning! I love how you sneak veggies into everything 🙂 truly was so much fun to make and an absolute hit at my dinner table!
Awesome Angeli! Did you use the dry manicotti here?
Every time I make a recipe from Feasting at Home I think “this is the best thing I’ve ever made”! Then I try another recipe and think it’s even better! As I was eating my dinner tonight I thought if I ordered this at a restaurant I would be impressed. You always get the right combination of seasoning, the right proportions. A true chef! Thank you for sharing your talent and recipes. I tell everyone how wonderful this site is!
Awww… thanks, Catherine! I’m so glad you gave this one a go! Appreciate your comment. 🙂
Is it possible to make this substituting the onions for someone who has IBS? Having difficulty finding tasty recipes for a family member.
Hi Cathy, what if you substituted green onions (just the green tops) I think they are low fodmap and Ok for people with IBS, but double-check. 🙂
OK ! So, this is an amazing recipe! I have never made Manicotti and i thought it was a nightmare getting the filling into the shells. LOL ! We tried the plastic bag and cutting an end, but utter failure ! So, we ended up using a small spoon to fill and flip it and use the spoon stem to push the filling in. A few cuss words later and It worked; Messy, but it worked. HA! The end product was very very good and we are going to make again soon for family. I’m determined to conquer the filling issue !
Ahaha Jeff! I’m so glad you gave it a go! I tried to make it as easy as possible and, find that using a gallon-size zip lock bag (with a thicker plastic) works well- not sure if you tried that. In any case- happy you enjoyed this. 🙂
If I cooked the noodles before then how long should I bake in the oven?
I would bake until the sauce is bubbly, 30-40 minutes. You will need less sauce in this case as the dry pasta soaks this up a bit
In the top part it’s says bake for 40, then 10 more uncovered but in the recipe part it says 50 minutes then 10 uncovered. Which is it for better results?
Go with the recipe card!
brilliant! yummo
Thanks Cath! Glad you enjoyed this.
Just made this for a family dinner. Everyone loved it, even my dad who doesn’t like tomatoes. The only thing I might do differently is undercook the broccoli. But this recipe’s a gem! Thanks Sylvia!
Hi Laura- you know, I’m wondering how it turn out if put in raw ( perhaps pulsed in food processor first) I haven’t tried this… but it would save a step! I’ll try this next time!
This recipes was a lot of work and disappointing when it was finally done. The manicotti wasn’t cooked enough and the tomato sauce too runny and tasteless.
I’m sorry about that Kathy. It sounds like the Manicotti did not bake long enough- hence the runny sauce and uncooked pasta. I adjusted the recipe a bit. I wonder if you saved it, it might soak up some of the sauce overnight?
This was not a simple recipe. Not difficult, but it used a lot of pans and appliances, like the blender.
Mine was verrrry watery at the end. Did anyone else experience that?
Hi Hillary- thanks for the feedback, did you use uncooked noodles, or did you cook them first?
I made this recipe and double the sauce because life is like that for me! Double
The sauce, double the plessure! The burrata was a nice touch!!!
Awesome Danny!
This is fantastic! Huge hit with my family (and a lucky coworker). Yet another feasting at home recipe that goes into my rotation. I’m back on the website to gather more recipes. I followed this exactly as written. Perfection.
Made this for my family for our backyard Christmas Eve, it was a huge hit! Very flavorful and festive! I didn’t have enough ricotta so combined it with your tofu ricotta and used pesto instead of fresh herbs. Assembled the night before it baked up beautifully. Thank you, I love your recipes!
Thanks Mary!
Fantastic recipe and oh so good! I made it as a lasagne. I omitted the nutmeg b/c I’m not a big nutmeg fan although I can see how it would add some earthiness to the dish. The lemon rind was the grace note though – just fab!
The store was out of manicotti so we made (pre-cooked) shells. I also used one box of Pomi marinara and dotted a little mozz since we didn’t have burrata. It was delicious and so easy. Thank you!
Perfect!
Delicious! The broccoli really lightens the dish and complements the cheeses! Easy to assemble and fun to eat. Looking forward to making again soon!
Thank you and cheers!
Thanks Benton!!!
Oh my, I made it today and is extremely delicious .I love it!
I notice in the write up the Parmesan and mozzarella are not mentioned, only the ricotta.
Should I use all three cheeses in the recipe or just the ricotta and the burrata?
Yes, use all. They are listed in the ingredients and mentioned in step 6.
I don’t see manicotti in the ingredient list. Assuming it’s just whatever the standard package is? I’m going to make this right now!
Sorry! Yes- standard 8-ounce package but I can only get 12 instead of 14 to fit into the pan.
Alas, my little town (Ojai–I’m sure you know it) had not one pack of mancotti. I did have some jumbo shells on hand, so I went that way. I’ll let you know how it goes!
Oh! Let me know!
This looks great could I do this layering it up in a lasagna?
yes totally!
Making it tonight!!
Thank you!