Manfredi with Ricotta. An easy and quick first course yet very tasty, perfect for everyday lunch and dinner.
A classic of Neapolitan cuisine; a simple first course with a sublime and indulgent taste, a feast for the senses.
Manfredi are a type of pasta much loved by Neapolitans, also known as reginette or mafaldine, they resemble lasagnette but with wavy edges.
The characteristic wavy form allows them to excellently hold the sauce.
The version with just tomato sauce scented with basil and ricotta is certainly a lighter and fresher version compared to the one with meat and much quicker, making it suitable for any day of the week.
Simply prepare a hearty tomato sauce with garlic and basil and add the ricotta to form a delicious creamy sauce; a simple yet very flavorful and fragrant dressing that fully enhances this type of pasta.
Use a good amount of ricotta, possibly buffalo ricotta, creating a delicious creamy sauce to envelop the manfredi.
Manfredi are a particular type of pasta. You don’t see them often on supermarket shelves.
It can also become a Sunday dish by making perfect Neapolitan ragù, but I realize not everyone has hours to prepare it. You can get around this by preparing a sauce with meatballs or braciole, but even a simple sauce with tomato purée can do.
Try it!
I also recommend baked rigatoni with ricotta a real treat.
Let’s see how to prepare manfredi with ricotta together.
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Very Economical
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All Seasons
- Energy 773.93 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 120.92 (g) of which sugars 3.49 (g)
- Proteins 32.74 (g)
- Fat 21.34 (g) of which saturated 8.02 (g)of which unsaturated 4.90 (g)
- Fibers 4.43 (g)
- Sodium 1,130.33 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 190 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for Manfredi with Ricotta
- 14 oz reginette (or manfredi)
- 1 tomato purée (in a 35.3 oz bottle)
- 7 oz mixed ricotta (preferably buffalo)
- 1 clove garlic
- 2.7 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- to taste salt
- 6 leaves basil (fresh)
- 2.1 oz Parmigiano Reggiano DOP
Tools
- Pot
- Colander
- Casserole
Preparation of Manfredi with Ricotta
In a saucepan, brown a clove of garlic.
Add the tomato purée, salt, and cook covered over low heat for about 1 hour.
At the end of cooking, scent with a few basil leaves.
Meanwhile, drain the ricotta and work it in a bowl with pepper and a pinch of salt to obtain a cream.
Set aside a tablespoon of ricotta and mix the rest with the sauce.
Cook the manfredi, drain them al dente, keeping aside a little cooking water.
Then place the drained pasta in the bowl with the ricotta cream.
Mix well, and if necessary, add a little cooking water.
Plate the manfredi with ricotta garnishing the plates with a teaspoon of ricotta cream and a basil leaf.
A bit of grated Parmigiano.
On each plate, add a good amount of hot sauce, a fresh basil leaf, and if you like, a grind of pepper.
Serve immediately while hot and steaming.
Enjoy your meal!
Tips
You can store manfredi with ricotta in the refrigerator in a container and then heat them well with a few tablespoons of boiling water.
To enrich the dish, you can use Neapolitan ragù.
A trick: To ensure the ricotta blends well with the pasta, put it in a large bowl, pour 1/2 glass of pasta cooking water, 4 tablespoons of sauce, and with the help of a fork, blend until you no longer see any white pieces of ricotta, but it should appear as a cream.
The addition of grated Parmigiano is a matter of taste;
different are the schools of thought, or rather family traditions, on how Manfredi with ricotta should be plated: some don’t blend the ricotta much, leaving it lumpy, then there’s those who mix ricotta and sauce as if it were a single cream, and finally, like in my home, who tries to combine both versions. Experiment yours!
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What ricotta do you recommend?
The ricotta, which is the main ingredient, must be chosen carefully: it should be fresh but well-drained, so it mixes with the tomato without making the sauce too watery. Mix just enough to blend the ingredients a bit and enjoy the dish right away, so it is nice and hot.
Do I have to use mafalde?
This tasty first course can be prepared with any type of pasta; we used mafalde because they hold the sauce well. But farfalle, penne, casarecce, rigatoni, and all formats that hold the dressing well work just fine.
