Cheesy Manicotti

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photo by:kraft

Spinach and mushrooms, along with cheese, make a tasty filling for this meal.

time

prep:

20 min

total:

1 hr 5 min

servings

total:

7 servings

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What You Need

pkg. (8 oz.) manicotti shell (14 shells)

pkg. (8 oz.) sliced fresh mushrooms

cloves garlic, minced

egg whites

pkg. (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, well drained

container (15 oz.) POLLY-O Natural Part Skim Ricotta Cheese

cup KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, divided

1/3

cup KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese, divided

cups spaghetti sauce

Make It

HEAT oven to 350°F.

COOK pasta as directed on package, omitting salt. Meanwhile, heat large nonstick skillet on medium heat. Add mushrooms and garlic; cook 5 min., stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Beat egg whites in medium bowl. Add mushroom mixture, spinach, ricotta and half each of the mozzarella and Parmesan; mix well.

DRAIN pasta; fill with spinach mixture. Place in 13x9-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray; cover with sauce.

BAKE 40 min. or until heated through. Top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan; bake 5 min. or until mozzarella is melted.

Kraft Kitchens Tips

Makeover - How We Did It

We've recreated this Italian classic using better-for-you ingredients to save you 160 calories and 12g of fat, including 6g of sat fat, per serving. The changes included substituting POLLY-O Natural Part Skim Ricotta Cheese and KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Reduced Fat Mozzarella Cheese for the full-fat products. In addition, we added spinach and mushrooms to the filling so we could reduce the cheese.

Variation

Substitute BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Cottage Cheese for the ricotta cheese and KRAFT 100% Grated Romano Cheese for the Parmesan cheese.

Substitute

Substitute frozen chopped broccoli for the spinach.

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tigg189074

posted:4/1/2008

I thought this recipe was great. I made it with a 1/2 alfredo 1/2 tomato sauce and it went perfect with the spinach. Make sure every bit of the manicotti is covered in sauce or the pasta will fry (just like lasagna if it's not covered).

goodbyesam

posted:3/30/2008

Not as good as we wanted it be. Way too much spinach. Too much stuffing, overall. We stuffed all of the shells and had lots of extra filling. The shells need a lot more sauce to avoid being dry and brittle. This recipe needs work

mamalea1

posted:3/27/2008

/the best recipe ever!!!!

mariposa2323

posted:3/26/2008

This recipe tasted great, but I had to lower my stars due to the degree of difficulty I experienced with stuffing the manicotti shells. Might have been my inexperience, but they turned out terribly.

DNixon2

posted:3/26/2008

I really love this dish.It was so good and my 4 year old like it to.I used spinach from the can.Mine only took 30 min to cook and 5 min before I check I put more sauce on it so it would not dry out.It's one of mine favorite's on this web site!

a cook

posted:3/24/2008

My family ate this up. I used a spagetti sauce with spinach in it and used fresh spinach that I wilted down in some italain dressing. I left the sauce off two of the noodles because my youngest can't handle tomatoes. Those noodles were a little tough, but he didn't mind.

amethystblack

posted:3/21/2008

Pretty good. I don't like mushrooms so didn't use them.

dmwilmoth

posted:3/20/2008

This was not a very easy recipe to make ... those manicotti shells are unwieldy! I put the stuffing in a Ziploc and snipped off the edge, but I got food everywhere anyway, haha! My boyfriend liked it but he loves Italian food. I thought it was okay. Sort of dry on the top, so be sure to add more sauce, maybe even right before the end of cooking, or just heat some up and pour it over the top afterwards. Also, there was wayyyyy too much spinach. If I make this again (which I might), I am going to use canned mushrooms (b/c fresh was just too annoying to clean, prep, slice and cook), less spinach and more sauce. Then I think it will be perfect.

a cook

posted:3/17/2008

I made this for a girls night out and everyone loved it. I did have a little trouble with the shells drying out where there was no sauce. Next time I may try adding more sauce or thinning out so all the shells are covered.

a cook

posted:3/11/2008

Excellent meal! A flavorful and nutritional spin on this classic Italian favorite.