Seafood Manicotti Alfredo

You’ll love this light Seafood Manicotti with Alfredo Sauce! Tender bites of seasoned shrimp and fresh crabmeat nestled in pasta with a light Alfredo cream sauce!

Ready in 40-minutes from start to finish.

This recipe is a spin on the traditional Italian dish, but incorporates shrimp and crabmeat into the ricotta mixture and substitutes tomato sauce with a quick and easy, homemade Alfredo sauce.

 

This crab and shrimp alfredo manicotti recipe uses frozen cooked shrimp. If you prefer, you can boil fresh shrimp. Read on…and I’ll share an easy way to stuff manicotti tubes!

Why you’ll love this recipe!

• Quick and Easy – the entire dish comes together in 40-minutes!
• Nice flavor and texture – just the right amount of shrimp and crab in every bite!
• Alfredo sauce – ready in 5-minutes!

This recipe makes 8 manicotti pasta shells and one cup of Alfredo sauce. Manicotti usually comes in a box with 12-14 shells.

If you want to use more shells, double the seafood filling and Alfredo sauce ingredients.

Here’s what you’ll need

How to make it

First, don’t throw out the plastic tray the noodles are packaged in…we’re gonna place the cooked noodles back in that tray so they’ll stay plumpl

You’re gonna cook the manicotti noodles first and let them cool. Then, combine the filling in a large bowl, fill the pasta noodles.

Make the sauce; drizzle a little in the pan. Line stuffed seafood manicotti in baking dish and drizzle with 1/2 of the Alfredo sauce; cover and bake

When ready to serve, plate manicotti and drizzle a little more of the sauce over individual servings.

You’ll want to make sure you chop the cooked shrimp into very fine pieces so they won’t get stuck in the “piping bag.” Fluff the crabmeat with a fork. 

How to fill the manicotti noodles

Once you get the filling combined, we’re gonna make a homemade piping bag.

Get a large plastic storage bag; cut 1/2 inch off one of the corners of the bag and scoop the filling to that corner. 

Put the tip of the bag on one end of the pasta tube; squeeze the seafood/cheese mixture into the manicotti noodle. Put a little of the mixture in, then use a knife or your finger to push it down the pasta tube, then add a little more of the filling.

How to make Alfredo sauce

Traditional Alfredo sauce does not use cream; I wanted a “creamy” Alfredo sauce, so I added a little cream to this recipe.

Melt butter in saucepan

Add heavy cream and whisk well; add Parmesan cheese and continue whisking until smooth

Season with salt and pepper

Note: if your sauce gets clumpy, add a little of the warm pasta water to the sauce and continue whisking until the Alfredo sauce is smooth.

What’s the difference between Manicotti and Cannelloni?

Both are tube shaped pasta. Manicotti has ridges on it; Cannelloni is smooth.

What kind of shrimp do I use?

This recipe uses frozen cooked shrimp. Remove shells and tails first (if they are on the shrimp.) Thaw by running cool water over shrimp.

If you want to use fresh shrimp, boil them first; let them cool, then finely dice.

The size of shrimp doesn’t matter because you’re going to chop it up (or put it in the food processor) until it’s finely minced along with the lump crabmeat.

What kind of crabmeat?

Seafood Manicotti Alfredo uses blue crabmeat that is found in the seafood/meat section of your grocer.

You could use canned crabmeat, but I’ve not made this recipe with canned, so I’m not sure how it would taste.

Tips

Cook a few more noodles than you think you’ll need: some split while boiling and some split when you’re filling them

Chop shrimp and crab into fine pieces or use a food processor; you want tiny pieces so it will go through a piping bag; place in a paper towel-lined colander and press out any excess liquid

To keep a “plump” shaped manicotti noodle, remove the al dente pasta from the water using the end of a wooden spoon and place the noodles back into the packaging tray

How to stuff the Manicotti noodles

Allow manicotti noodles to cool before filling

Create a “piping bag” with a large plastic baggie; put the seafood mixture in the corner; close the bag and cut  1/2″inch of the corner

The easiest way to stuff the noodles is to hold the cooled pasta shell vertically in your left hand; pipe the seafood mixture DOWN into the pasta until you can feel it on your left palm; gently push the mixture down into the shell with your finger and add a little more filling until the shell is nice and plump

DO NOT OVERSTUFF SHELLS or they will SPLIT

Reserve a little of the Alfredo sauce to pour over the pasta after you take it out of the oven

Cover with foil and bake@350ºF for 20 minutes

Drizzle a little more sauce over the pasta after you remove it from the oven

Make ahead

If you want to make this ahead of time, I recommend you cook the pasta and fill it, then cover and refrigerate for up to 2-3 days. 

When you’re ready to serve, make the sauce, drizzle a little in the bottom of a baking dish, place the stuffed manicotti on top of the sauce; cover with foil and bake on 325ºF for 15-20 minutes, or until it’s warmed throughout. 

Remove and pour warm Alfredo sauce over the top, garnish and serve! 

Serving tips

This dish “looks prettiest” if you first plate the manicotti then top individual servings with a little of the Alfredo sauce. 

Serve with a fresh green salad with a light vinaigrette dressing and warm garlic bread.

This Seafood Manicotti Alfredo recipe comes together pretty quickly and is a great alternative to traditional Manicotti!

Related recipes:

• Tortellini Pasta Salad
• Louisiana Shrimp Etouffee
• Authentic Italian Bruschetta
  
• Seafood Cobb Salad
• Cold Dill Shrimp Salad
• 3-Cheese Manicotti Crepes

If you make this recipe, please scroll down and leave a comment and rating. I love to hear from you!