Sausage-stuffed Manicotti

Enter the second half of my buy one get one free spicy italien sausage deal. I had a rather inexplicable desire for stuffed pasta, so I proceeded to check the literature. Something I found that was in disagreement was whether the manicotti should be cooked before the stuffing occurs. The shells are brittle and prone to cracking before cooked, but extremely easy to tear afterwards. The manicotti obviously needs to spend more time in the oven if they are not boiled beforehand, with some suggesting to mix in some water with the sauce. A few recipes suggested what seemed to me a very sensible solution, boil the pasta for half the time.

The stuffing for this dish was made up of browned sausage, sauteed onions, garlic, ricotta cheese, and bread crumbs. The half cooking the manicotti worked out very nicely, as it ended up easy enough to stuff, but not so tender that it tore. The shells were nestled between two layers of spaghetti sauce, with plenty of mozzarella cheese sprinkled on top, and baked at 350 for about 30 minutes or so. Spicy italien sausage is still pretty much the greatest thing ever, and worked really well in this.