I’m an adventurous cook but I never made manicotti until my husband’s grandmother gave me her recipe for the crepes! I find it’s a lot easier to make manicotti with crepes than those tubes you have to boil and fill. I hope you’ll think so too and give it a try yourselves. P.S. I think that if I wasn’t an author, I’d want to be a chef like the characters in SOUTH BEACH LOVE. If you haven’t read SOUTH BEACH LOVE, it’s specially priced at 99 cents at https://amzn.to/4hbnXQr or you can download it for free if you sign up for my newsletter at https://bit.ly/CaridadsNewsletter.

Manicotti

Manicotti Crepes

3 cups flour
2 cups milk
1 cup club soda
3 large eggs
6 tbsp melted butter, cooled
1 tsp salt

Beat the eggs in a bowl, add the remaining ingredients and mix until smooth. The mix should be like a runny pancake batter. Be sure not to overmix as this will make the crepes harder.

Oil the non-stick skillet with just a little oil smeared around the skillet with a paper towel.

Heat the skillet until a drop of water dances on the surface. Then kick it down a notch and ladle in the batter, a little over a 1/4 cup per crepe. Give the skillet a twirl until the bottom is coated with the batter. It should be about 1/8 inch thick and not much more. The crepe will start to set and when it’s almost fully set, flip it for another half a minute or so.

Lay the cooked crepes on a plate. It’s okay to stack them until you are done. The butter in the batter keeps them from sticking to the skillet and to each other.

You will get about 20 crepes from the above mix. That’s enough to make two 9×13 pans of baked manicotti.

The above recipe is also for a slightly thicker batter/crepe since thin ones can be hard to handle. But once you get the hang of it, add an additional 1/2 of cold water for a thinner batter/crepe.

Ricotta Filling for the Manicotti

2 eggs
3 pounds Ricotta (Drain it for a few hours to get rid of the excess liquid)
1 pound shredded mozzarella cheese (or preferably a 2 or 4 cheese mix with fontina, asiago, parmesan)
Chopped fresh parsley if you have it, if not a little dried (but it’s not an essential)
1/4 to 1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Beat the eggs and then add everything else (but leave a handful or two of the shredded cheese for a topping). Mix it all up and put about 3 tablespoons of the cheese mixture spread across the crepe. I use a cookie scoop so I have the same amount in each crepe. Roll the crepe to cover the cheese mixture. Lay the crepe with the rolled edge down on a greased pan with a little bit of red sauce.

Roll all the crepes and lay them side by side. A 9×13 pan should allow for ten crepes to go there side by side. Cover with a little red sauce and top with mozzarella. Bake at 350 for about 35-40 minutes and then serve!

For a change of pace, cook up some spinach, squeeze out the extra liquid, chop and mix it into the cheese mixture. It’s quite tasty that way also.

Bon Apetit!

What it looks like from batter to crepe, and also the filling!