I'm hoping someone with experience making typical manicotti has an answer for my silly question.

A few restaurants make manicotti the way I like it. Most others don't. I'm talking classic manicotti - ricotta, parsley, pasta, tomato sauce, mozarella.

What I'm looking for in a dish of manicotti is for the ricotta filling to be somewhat grainy in texture with a hint of butter flavor on top of the tomato and pasta flavors. Of course the buttery flavor might be coming from the melted mozzarella too.

But in most restaurants, the filling for the manicotti has no texture -it is a fine paste, and that buttery flavor is missing.

I was wondering if someone who had more experience making manicotti could clue me in on the possible difference between the two methods.