Welcome back to our new blog series From Our Table to Yours! Last month, we shared a recipe for the Ukrainian favorite, Galumpkis. This month, we’ll show you how to make manicotti, an American-Italian, cheese-filled crepe dish.

Italian food is thought to be easy — pizza and pasta! Italians are known to use simple ingredients to make delicious food and our favorite is manicotti, pronounced “man-i-got” if you’re Italian-American! Did you know Italian-Americans are known to leave off the last vowel when pronouncing food?

Manicotti is the Americanized version of Italy’s cannelloni. The only difference is the large tube-shaped pasta used; cannelloni is smooth and manicotti is ribbed. For this recipe, we’ll be making crepes instead of pasta tubes. Since the crepe and sauce recipes are a family secret, we’re only sharing the ingredients for the filling. Manicotti translates to “little sleeve” and the crepe base used in this recipe is exactly that. While the recipe we are sharing here has a basic cheese filling, manicotti can also include your choice of meat and vegetables mixed into the cheese filling to make this a versatile dish!

Ingredients for filling: 15 oz. ricotta cheese ½ lb. shredded mozzarella cheese 1/8 tsp. pepper 2 eggs ¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese parsley Italian gravy/sauce
	Mix all ingredients together except the Italian gravy/sauce.
	Spoon the mixture in crepes and roll, or use pasta tubes if you’re not using crepes!
	Spread some Italian gravy/sauce onto the bottom of a sheet pan to cover bottom lightly.
	Line rolled-up crepes or pasta tubes on the sheet pan and lightly add more Italian gravy/sauce to the top.
	Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes.

If you are interested in more Italian fare, check out these cookbooks:

We’ve compiled some great cookbooks and stories about pizza for kids!