Cleverly Inspired

I wanted to pop in and share a recipe that I made for my family on Christmas Eve. What I love about it is that you can make it ahead…always a good thing in my book! I actually made the filling two days before Christmas Eve and then I stuffed the manicotti shells Christmas Eve morning and had it ready to go for after church. You can make as many as you need and freeze the filling for another time. You could always use a large shell instead of manicotti… whatever you prefer. Thing that’s great about a stuffed manicotti is it’s really filling so it feeds a lot of people with not a whole lot of food. You can top it with a favorite alfredo or white sauce or use just a traditional marinara like I did. In our house we are not a fan of ricotta cheese so I used a blend of cream cheese, mozzarella and provolone. Obviously you can add in whatever cheeses you might like. I do think that the manicotti is easier to stuff once the filling is a little bit chilled. Also, cook the noodles about 6 minutes (al dente) and they will be a bit easier to stuff.