If you ask me, there’s a rumble of mighty confusion among the lands.
And by lands, I mean my noggin.
You know what, I’m just going to ask you. I asked the Google, but it only led me down a path of befuddlement and flask shopping.
What’s the stinkin’ difference between manicotti and cannelloni? They’re both delicious tubes of happiness filled with seasoned glee and topped with creamy giddiness, right?
The Goog tried telling me one was filled with meats while the other was filled with only cheeses and spinach. And that some tubes were smaller with no ridges while the others were larger with design. And also that the sauce on one was tomato-based while the other was a creamy white sauce. Well, home freshies, mine is the combo order of all that, sooooo I think what we’re looking at here is manilloni.
Or cannellotti?
Or man-cann-i-e-cott-llon-i-i.
Or cann-man-e-i-llon-cott-i-i.
Or mcaannnieclolotntclontlotii?
I’m so glad you’re on board.
Do you want to know why I went with manicotti? Because I WAS going to call this cannelloni. Ya see, there’s this restaurant in town that serves thu merst incredible chicken, spinach and mushroom cannelloni known to any face and mouth, and this was going to be my version of it. But their cannelloni tubes are actual crepes. CREPES. Perfectly light, airy, delicate little baby crepes. Is that not ridiculous? I wasn’t about to try to make crepes because I had limited time due to my current Parenthood obsession. (Which bee-tee-dub, I’m two episodes from being completely caught up and I did NOT see that coming. My fragility is basically hooked up to life support. Ugh.)
AND, I knew Hank had something up his sleeeeeeeve, ooooh that Hank.
What was I telling you? Oh yeah. Manileeloo.
I called it manicotti instead of cannelloni because the box said manicotti. AHAHAHAH. Oh.
Was that anticlimactic?
How ’bout I show you a close-up of the finished dish, eh?
Man-i-don’t-care-what-it’s-called-i-want-that-cotti is more like it, heeeeeeey-oh!
Let’s eat already.
Chicken, Spinach and Mushroom Manicotti:
What it took for 4:
* 1 (8 oz) box manicotti tubes
* 1 pound ground chicken
* 1 tsp ground cinnamon
* 1 pinch red pepper flakes
* 1 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
* 8 oz baby bella mushrooms, finely chopped
* 3 cloves garlic, minced
* 5 oz baby spinach
* 3/4 cup ricotta cheese (roughly, whatever you want)
* 2 Tbs. fresh parsley, plus more for garnish
* 2 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes
* 1/3 cup heavy cream
* coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
Preheat oven to 400.
Fill up a 9 x 13 dish with warm water. Place the manicotti tubes in there and just let ‘em hang while you prepare everything else. They won’t be super soft, but it just gets them in the mindset, ya know?
Bring a large skillet to a medium-high heat. Add the ground chicken to the pan and season with a good pinch of salt, pepper, the ground cinnamon and crushed red pepper. Brown all over, about 7 minutes. Remove from the skillet and set aside.
Back in the skillet, add a Tbs. of oil. Add the mushrooms and sauté for 3 minutes, or until they start to soften. Add the garlic and a pinch of salt. Sauté 30 more seconds. Add the spinach and toss to wilt, maybe 2 minutes.
In a large bowl, combine the chicken, spinach and mushroom mixture with the ricotta cheese and parsley.
In the meantime, pulse the tomatoes in a food processor until smooth. Transfer them to a small saucepan. Stir in the cream and lightly simmer. Season with a small pinch of salt and pepper.
Drain the water from the baking dish and wipe clean with a paper towel. Pour about 1/2 cup of the creamy tomato sauce along the bottom of the baking dish.
Stuff each tube with the ricotta mixture and arrange them in the dish. Once all stuffed, pour the rest of the tomato sauce over the manicottis. Cover and bake 30 minutes.
Let rest about 5 minutes. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrright.
Serve garnished with parsley and freshly grated parmesan!
Man-i-could-cuddle-some-cotti-about-now? No? Okay.
me’s wants now please…..
Another spinach filled dish (aka reason #59879083 I heart you.)
Who cares what you call it! Just pass me a fork.
Haha, that last name. About the cuddling. That’s the one I want.
I always thought the difference was the ends of the pasta on manicotti are cut at an angle and the cannelloni are flat?
Buuuuuuuuuuut I kinda made that up in my head, so you know…take it with a grain of salt
Having this for dinner asap!
I want this for supper now! Buuuuuuutttt, since I’m not going to the grocery store ’til Wednesday, I pinned it and will dream about it ’til then!
Yup, don’t care what it’s called. Just want to eat it.
Is it mani-cotti, as in mani-pedi?
Ohhh this would be such a delicious lunch for me and my daughter during the week. I love manicotti.
Whatever they’re called, these look AMAZING!
Yummy. Pinning!
I don’t care what you call it, I want some!!!
Those look insanely good! Especially since breakfast just did not cut it this morning. I just started Parenthood last night!
Oh my. This looks so delicious! Always looking to put a new spin on pasta night. Looking forward to making this one!
I’d for sure gobble up that manilloni deliciousness. That’s my name for it. Feel free to borrow it any time.
This looks phenominal!!
Call it whatever you’d like… just put it in my mouth!
yes please!!
My stomach is grooooooowling….
Yum! I wish this is what we were eating for dinner tonight, but only if someone else was making it for me. Stuffing pasta isn’t hard but I always hate doing it.
Looks delish, just what I wanna eat after my mani-pedi?
Yes. The cuddling. I’m in.
I want to be curled up in those manicottis. Yum-o!
Oh, Bev. You are pure joy, and your posts make me happy.
Of course, your food makes my belly happy, which is important, too. Obviously. 
Manicotti is my favorite, and I’ve never made it with ground chicken. I’m not sure if they sell ground chicken here, in the middle of nowhere but now I’ll be lookin.
Call it what you want, but I rearranged the letters to give your dish a more manly, Italian name. I shall now refer to him as sir Lance Linnici Mantoot. Okay, so the beginning is manly and Italian. Close enough.
Um, best. name. ever.
Watching Parenthood as I pin and found this
I’ve actually never seen pasta shaped like that before but this recipe looks delicious, will have to keep an eye out for those.
I’m not gonna lie – by the end I did not know which one this was…nor did I care!! Looks yummy. Don’t think it’s on my “clean foods” list, but hey, a girl can dream right? Or make it for her husband
Making this weekend! One question though, I noticed that the ingredients are for 4, is that 4 servings or 4 tubes? I only ask because the picture looks like there is 8 or 9 in the dish and I may make this for company.
Thanks!
Oh cool! You’re correct, 4 servings. Assuming each person eats a couple of tubes. I think there were around 14 tubes in the package, so you might get more servings out of it! Depending how hungry ya are.
Let me know how it turns out!
Thanks, making this tomorrow!
I’ve been asking my mom that same question for years! She makes Italian food for all the big holidays (cause her lil Italian grandma always did) and it’s usually either manicotti or cannelloni… But it pretty much always looks the same no matter what she calls it!
This looks amazing! Reading through the post made me laugh so hard, especially the “thu merst incredible chicken” part, my husband randomly talks and/or sings like this ALL the time and I die laughing every time.
I found this through Pinterest, can’t wait to make it and and I’ll definitely be following your blog from now on, thanks for sharing!! 
Whatever you call it, I like it!
Whats a good substitute for heavy cream…Ive got lactose issues
AND how did you stuff them…?? with a spoon?
I personally like to use a spatula and get every last scrap of the yummy mixture into a freezer ziploc bag, cut the tip off and squeeze it into each end of the tubes! It’s always worked for me.
Yes! I used a spoon to stuff them, but I love Bailey’s idea in squeezing the mix in!
And I say just leave out the cream! You’ll have a nice smooth tomato sauce still, without it.
Let me know how it works for ya!
The first recipe I ever saw for cannelloni used crepes instead of pasta tubes. And to further confound and amaze…you put tomato sauce in the bottom of the baking dish and a white sauce on the top! Like yours, it had spinach and cheese inside, but it also used chicken livers. I love me some chicken livers, so that became my go-to buffet dish. It’s amazing, but almost no one ever realizes they’re eating chicken livers.
Not sure what that means.
Are you enlightened or more confused? Thanks for reminding me that I love cannelloni.
Making this for my bf and parents this weekend-very excited looks delish!
my sauce turned out like a sauce but in the photo it looks more like a chunky sauce.. Can someone explain this
This looks really good i have one question?? Did you cook the tomatoes before blending them up? Or cut blend and mix with cream and cook then??
I’ve never made a Manicotti dish before but this sounds to die for! I guess I’ll be making a Manicotti dish now, thanks for the great recipe!
We made this last night and it was delicious (though I substituted ground beef for chicken and had no parsley). Thanks for posting! I’m adding your blog to my reader right now!
Making mine right now! Just about to put the sauce in the bottom of the pan. I ran out of $$ before I could get some parsley but I think it’s gonna be great anyways!
Made these a couple of days ago but used mascarpone instead of ricotta. They were just fantastic! Best part… I divided into two casseroles and one is in the freezer! Can’t wait for that deliciously lazy dinner!