Creamy Sausage Manicotti Bake

This post is sponsored by Prego^®. All opinions are my own.

In addition to quick meals, I am sold on meals that can be prepped and cooked later on. With the kids' schedules, I may have an hour or two in the middle of the day, but very little time in the prime dinner hours. If I can have food ready, anyone in the house can put it in the oven and we'll still get a yummy homemade meal.


This creamy sausage manicotti fits the bill perfectly! I know chicken is usually the go-to choice for white sauces, but my family loves sausage with Alfredo sauce. Manicotti tubes are filled with a delicious blend of sausage and ricotta cheese, then topped with white sauce and even more cheese, and baked till the pasta is tender. Just add bread and a salad and you've got the perfect weeknight meal!

Ingredients:

• 1 package manicotti tube noodles
• 1 lb ground Italian sausage
• 1 container ricotta cheese (about 15 oz)
• 1 jar Prego Alfredo Sauce, two if you like a lot of sauce
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella, plus extra for the top
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 tbsp Italian seasoning

Directions:

Remove casings from sausage if necessary. Place the sausage in a frying pan, cook until brown and crumbly, rinse and drain grease.

While the sausage is cooking, combine ricotta, mozzarella, garlic, and Italian seasoning in a separate bowl. Mix well and set aside.

When the sausage is rinsed and drained, break up any large pieces with a spatula and stir into the cheese mixture.

Spoon sausage and cheese mixture into a large ziplock bag. Push the air out and squeeze the mixture to a bottom corner. Cut off the corner with a pair of scissors.

Stand up the manicotti tubes on a flat surface and pipe the sausage and cheese filling into each tube.

Once the tubes are filled, spread a half cup of sauce at the bottom of a baking dish, then line the filled manicotti on top of it.

If you have leftover mixture, pipe it around the filled tubes.

Pour the rest of the sauce over the manicotti and sprinkle some extra mozzarella on top.

Cover with foil and bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes or until the pasta is cooked, removing the foil for the last 10 minutes.

Serve with bread and salad!