I have used this recipe 5 or 6 times now trying it with cooked noodles and uncooked noodles. Uncooked works as long as you make sure they are completely covered with sauce when you bake it. Otherwise, I put the noodles in warm water until they soften a little and I can pull them out one at a time to stuff them. Use a freezer bag to stuff them, its more durable and big enough to hold a lot of filling. I sometimes throw chopped spinach or mushrooms in with the mixture, but not too much or it will overpower everything else.

The easy way to stuff the manicotti is to put the cheese recipe in a large zip lock bag and cut of a small piece of the corner same as a piping bag and a whole lot quicker without the mess.

If you make ahead you can use uncooked shells. Much easier and less mess. Prepare and cover with sauce. Refrigerate and let set in fridge. The shells will soften overnight due to contact with sauce. Cook as usual. This works for making lasagne as well.

A VERY Simple way to fill the manicotti shells without making a mess. After you have your cheesed mixed just pick up a manicotti shell and quickly push it down into the mixture over and over. Gently do this over and over a few times. It will push the cheese up into the shell. When it is filled just take a spoon and quickly knock off the the excess from the end and you have a filled shell! No messy bags, and no mess trying to put it in with a spoon.

I forgot to say that I DO NOT cook my manicotti first. I just use the raw tubes and it works just fine. Just make sure and check them before serving for doneness.

Love this recipe. I use a pastry bag and cut to the "C" mark which is about the same as the manicotti shell and have no issue filling them at all. I don't know if that is a universal mark on all pastry bags but it looks like an inch diameter. I do cook them first as I don't like the starchy taste the marinara sauce gets from the uncooked pasta. My daughter never boils her pasta and I do love it at her house but with mine I like the tomato sauce to keep its tangy refreshing taste to counterbalance the richness of the filling and pasta. I add an egg to the filling as well. If you have a scale. I weigh my final cheese mixture and then divide it by the number of shells I want to make so I don't overfill any or under fill. Plus I never end up with shells leftover with no filling or needing more shells. It takes 2 ounces/55 grams or so to fill a shell depending on how full you want them. You could go as low as 1.80 ounces (50 grams) and as high as 2.20 ounces (62 grams) to have the filling spilling out. I find 2 ounces to be the sweet spot between the two.

I use Jumbo Shells instead of Manicotti, tastes the same, just easier to stuff.