This is a recipe that a coworker gave me years ago but it's pretty ubiquitous on the internet these days.
Ingredients:
24 jumbo pasta shells, cooked
1 egg
15 oz container of ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella (divided)
1 cup grated parmesan
2 TBSP fresh chopped parsley
1 TBSP Italian seasoning
Sald and pepper to taste
3 cups marinara type sauce (or whatever flavor you like, garlic, basil, mushroom, etc)
I missed a couple photos of steps but it's pretty easy. Cook the pasta shells to maybe a minute or two less than the package instructions. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan. In a bowl, combine ricotta, 1 cup of the mozzarella, the parmesan, the beaten egg, and the parsley and seasonings. Add salt and pepper to taste. We sometimes put in a dash of nutmeg and a few red pepper flakes.
Spread the sauce in the bottom of the pan. Take the pasta shells, drain them and once they have cooled a bit, spoon the cheese mixture into each one. Since I usually make this, I like to put the cheese mixture into a gallon ziplock bag squeeze to one corner and snip off the corner with some scissors. Instant piping bag and makes filling them very easy. Lastly, just place the filled shell, seam side up, in the pan with the sauce.
Cover the top with the remaining shredded mozzarella. Some recipes call for the sauce to be divided so you can use some on top at this step. We've done it both ways but we like the cheese goodness this provides as the shells cook in a bath of tomato sauce goodness.
Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
We just had stuffed pasta shells yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI don't use Ricotta cheese. My mixture consists of browned hamburger or Italian sausage browned, add some taco seasoning to the meat mixture, mix in Cream cheese and stir until cream cheese has melted.
I usually mix my meat mixture the day before and store in the fridge until the day when I'm ready to stuff the cooked pasta shells. Top with lots of cheese; Mexican Blend, Fiesta Blend or whatever I have on hand.
It was 3 weeks before I was able to find the jumbo shells so bought a couple of boxes right away. Just hubby & myself, I use 2-8x8 pans. One to eat the day of and the other I wrap and put in the freezer for another time.
Good with a green salad and garlic bread or bread sticks.
I love making stuffed pasta shells. Such a tasty and comforting dish. My mixture is much like yours but I do add a large table spoon of basil pesto to the cheese filling.
ReplyDeleteWe make these when we want lasagna but don't want the hassle of making lasagna. They freeze well too
ReplyDeleteThe only Italian I ate was my homemade spaghetti. Then, I went to NYC to my daughter's house (married to Italian) and all I have wanted is Italian food.
ReplyDeleteLooks delicious!
ReplyDelete🌻🌻🌻
Yum. I love stuffed shells and use a recipe like this. I also add shredded chicken to the cheese mixture and cover with alfredo sauce. I am going to try a couple of the ideas here.
ReplyDeleteI cover the shells with jarred sauce of choice and then addd the cheese, it makes it more moist. Sometimes I make my own filling recipe and ad ground beef to it along with some to the sauce.
ReplyDeleteThese look so good!! And the recipe from Colleen with browned sausage sounds delightful!! In 73 years i've never made these so my Italian blood must run thin!! But it sure caught my eye this time .. especially with the cheese all nicely browned!!
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