Manicotti with ruler, pasta

Manicotti (the plural form of the Italian word manicotto), literally "big sleeves" (< manica 'sleeve' + the augmentative ending -otto), are a type of pasta in Italian-American cuisine. Manicotti are large pasta tubes intended to be stuffed and baked.

The filling is generally ricotta cheese mixed with chopped parsley, and possibly ground meat such as veal, but such pasta with a strictly meat filling is called cannelloni rather than manicotti. They are served topped with tomato sauce.

Like the cannelloni of Italian cuisine, manicotti can be extruded in tube form, or rolled from sheets of dough. While manicotti are pointed, cannelloni are smooth with flat ends.

In popular culture

In the television show The Sopranos it is a well known fact that mobster Phil Leotardo wanted manicott (colloquial Italian-American pronunciation) but instead compromised and ate grilled cheese off the radiator.^[1] Throughout the series, manicotti is mentioned several times as the show revolves around Italian-Americans in New Jersey.

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