Parmesan Cheese

First off, Why must you use all of those ingredients? I'm not sure about the whipping cream unless you use it to make your sauce creamy.

#1 Manicotti is a stuffed pasta so I would recommend stuffing it with a ricotta cheese mixture then using the tomatoes, sausage and ground beef to make a bolognese sauce.

This is what I would do with these ingredients.

First I would boil the Manicotti. It onloy takes about a pound of ricotta to stuff a box of Manicotti (usually 14 noodles)

*Remember to undercook the pasta a little because you will be putting in the oven still and don't want mushy noodles.

Then while that is going on I would make get half a pund of each meat browning in a big sauce pan so you can go ahead and make the sauce in one pot.

While that is browning, make the stuffing for the manicotti.

• - one pound of ricotta cheese. Fresh is best, ask for cellino if available if you like it creamy.
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs
• Oregano, Italian seasoning, basil, garlic powder or salt, salt and pepper and a pinch of fresh ground nutmeg to taste.
• You may add some vegetables such as red,green pepper, spinach, mushrooms if you like (i usually saute my vegetables before adding to mixture so everything is cooked before going into the oven)

For the sauce

• 1/2 pound Italian sausage
• 1/2 pound ground beef
• white wine
• two big cans of tomatoes or one jar of any pasta sauce you like
• oregano, Italian seasoning, garlic, basil, parsley, salt pepper to taste.
• you can add some of the cream here for a creamier sauce

When the meat is browned drain fat and return to same pan.

Add seasonings to taste, then add tomatoes and lcream and let simmer until boiling.

Reduce heat and add about a cup of the white whine. Allow to simmer and taste.

When the noodle are almost done, drain water and stuff with ricotta mixture.

A 9x13'' pan works best. Pour a thin layer of sauce on bottom of pan. Layer stuffed manicotti in pan then cover with remaining sauce. The sprinkle your parmesan cheese over the top. You can also use mozzarella or provologne or combination of all if you really want. You can also add the same cheeses to the ricotta mixture.

Bake in a 375 F oven. All ingredients are cooked for the most part so really all your doing here is heating it and melting the cheese. I usually leave it in for at least an hour. You can stick cheese under broiler if you like at the last minutes to really melt the cheese. Watch it carefully though, only takes a couple minutes.

I hope this works out for you. I make this all the time with either manicotti or shells. Double everything for shells though or use two boxes of manicotti to feed more. I don't really measure anything. Its really hard to mess up. Good luck.