Difference Between Manicotti and Cannelloni

Those of you who have eaten cannelloni may be wondering what’s the difference between manicotti and cannelloni, two very similar dishes. Cannelloni and manicotti are frequently confused. Both are rolled, tubular pastas that are stuffed with some sort of filling. In Italian, cannelloni literally means "large reeds", while manicotti means "sleeves" or "muff."

You’d be hard pressed to find manicotti on a menu in Italy. It’s cannelloni you’ll see there, and they are fresh pasta tubes or sheets of pasta rolled into tubes (canna means reed in Italian) usually stuffed with either meat or cheese and topped with a béchamel sauce. The traditional version of the manicotti recipe uses a crêpe instead of pasta tubes to contain the filling, which is similarly covered in sauce and baked. The original idea of manicotti was actually more like a crepe. However, Italians call crepe ‘crespelle’ and you can’t buy a pasta called manicotti in Italy!

In the U.S., manicotti are typically made with ridged pasta tubes (manicotto means “muff” in Italian) that are sold dry in packages. They’re usually stuffed with a ricotta filling and topped with tomato sauce.

The origin of Cannelloni dates back to around 1907, when Nicola Federico, a well-known chef from Naples, Italy, invented this pasta. He created it while working at the La Favoria, a popular restaurant of Sorrento, Italy. Initially, this tubular pasta was called “strascinati”, because the pasta was rolled and stretched, which soon came to be known by the name that is popular today – Cannelloni. It gained popularity when the residents of Naples fled to Sorrento, during World War II, which is when they got introduced to this pasta. Today, most restaurants across the world prepare various cannelloni dishes.