Baked Manicotti with Meat Sauce

The pasta split apart, the meat was flavorless, and the sauce was lackluster. There had to be a way to build up the flavors without simmering the sauce all day long. Here’s what we discovered:

Test Kitchen Discoveries

• Fresh pasta is ideal for rolling up the manicotti tubes, but no-boil lasagna noodles worked with a fraction of the effort, and were indistinguishable in the final dish.
• Breaking down the meat in the food processor allowed its flavor to permeate the sauce.
• To give some spice to the meat mixture we tried adding several combinations of hot Italian sausage, meatloaf mix, and ground pork. In the end we discovered a popular pizza topping delivered the perfect spicy, meaty taste.
• We overcame a flat-tasting filling by adding Parmesan and provolone cheeses. We also reserved some of the meat mixture to stir into the filling.