Manicotti are a much-loved baked pasta in our family, but in this case I use crespelle instead of fresh pasta to envelop the ricotta stuffing, resulting in a delightfully delicious, lighter version. Crespelle, Italian crêpes, are one of the most versatile recipes in the kitchen. You can use them shredded in soups, layered in lasagna, stuffed and rolled in manicotti, as I do here, or baked with vegetables and pesto - and if you add some sugar to the batter, you can make endless forms of dessert with them. I like to make a big batch of crespelle—once you get going, they are done in no time, and you can freeze or refrigerate the extras. Buon Gusto! #centoFineFoods @AccademiadeiCento #LidiasRecipes #LidiasItaly #LidiasKitchen #LidiaBastianich #ItalianFood #FromLidiasTableToYours #LidiasSoundtrack

Crespelle - https://lidiasitaly.com/recipes/cresp...

Manicotti - https://lidiasitaly.com/recipes/cresp...

For years, I’ve asked myself where the name “manicotti” comes from. Then, one day, I figured it out. When I was in a refugee camp in Trieste, I was enrolled in a Catholic school, and to supplement my tuition I would help the nuns in the kitchen. They wore big aprons, and on their arms, to protect the sleeves of their habits, they had tubes made out of white cloth with elastic edges on both sides. These sleeves covered their arms from wrist to elbow, and they were called “manicotti”; hence the name of tubular stuffed pasta that we now know as manicotti.


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