Who doesn't love filled pasta?

 I love filled pasta dishes.  The fact that filled pastas are usually filled with cheese probably has something to do with that.  And then if you add beef, well, that just makes everything better. So I couldn't resist a recipe called Beef and Cheese Manicotti from the Food Network.

You have to cook the manicotti first and right out of the pot some of my manicotti were already broken.  But whatever, they taste the same.  While they were cooking I sautéed the onion and beef.

Making the filling is not complicated but then you have to get it into the manicotti.  There was no hint on how to do that.  Last time I made manicotti I tried the pastry bag made out of a zip top bag technique.  That didn't work for me.  But I am not very good with a pastry bag so if you have any skill in that area you might want to give that a try.  I just used a tablespoon and carefully pushed the filling in until it was halfway full and then did the same thing form the other side.  I packed them as full as I could and had a little sticking out the ends and had plenty of filling.  So don't skimp.  A few more manicotti broke during this stage.  

Then I had to get them in the pan.  I thought that would be the easy part but it was a really tight fit.  I had less than half in the pan when I realized I was going to have trouble.  I thought about moving them around like some sort of pasta puzzle but I decided to just push on.  In the end I had to cut on in half and just cram it in wherever I could.  But, as I kept reminding myself, it would all taste the same.  

Some cheese on top (more cheese, I love it) and in the oven it goes.  Half an hour later you have beautiful manicotti.  I don't really know how you can go wrong with pasta and cheese and this case is no different.  It is very tasty.  If you like ricotta cheese you can't help but like this.  And it is very filling.  It makes a good hardy meal.  The only thing I might do differently is add a little crushed red pepper to the cheese filling next time.  But I like some sort of hot pepper element in just about everything I eat so that might just be me and my unnatural love of heat.  

I think pasta is a great way to go when you are unsure what to make for dinner.  This one is a little more work than just boiling some pasta and heating up some store bought sauce (which is also tasty by the way) but I do think the extra work is worth it.  I like manicotti and I can find no reason to go looking for a different recipe than this,