Have I mentioned I like pasta? Maybe a time or two, right? 😉 One thing I’ve always wanted to make is some sort of stuffed pasta – I made ravioli earlier this year (seriously good – note to self, make that again ASAP), but that is the extent of my culinary skills when it comes to filling pasta. Who doesn’t enjoy a good stuffed pasta? Manicotti, Ravioli, Tortellini, and Stuffed Shells…oh yeah!
I was checking my email this week and received one from Gojee.com. I know I’ve mentioned them before, so be sure to check them out. They have gorgeous photos and a really unique recipe search engine, and their weekly emails highlight a couple of their favorite recipes of the moment. One of these recipes was for Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells from a site called Spoon Fork Bacon, which by its name tells me that I really need to go explore the website. Anyway, this recipe sounded delightful…I was so in…
Since I hadn’t worked with oversized, uncooked pasta shells, I wasn’t sure what I was in for. I knew it would be an adventure, and I have to say that I was impressed with how easily and quickly this hearty dish came together. Truly the longest prep work involved was to thaw and drain the frozen spinach. However, I was able to complete the task in the time that it took to cook the pasta, so it worked pretty perfectly.
Annoyingly, the pasta box didn’t note how many shells it contained. Knowing I needed about 25 shells, I purchased two boxes. I only needed one (guess I’ll be making this dish again). I ended up cooking closer to 30 shells so that I had a few backups in the event that some of the shells tore during cooking, thus making them impossible to stuff.
All in all, this dish was actually pretty fun to make. The filling was mainly ricotta cheese and spinach and once mixed up, it was easy to fill the shells with. The dish bakes for about 25 minutes in total and voila, your meal is complete. Be sure to have your favorite marinara sauce on hand. I went with Target’s Arriabiata sauce, because it’s nice and spicy.
Plus this dish is fabulous heated up. I spooned a little leftover sauce on the top of the shells and sprinkled some shredded mozzarella over the top, microwave for 2 minutes, and my stomach was happy. I hope you enjoy this dish and give it a try, because it really is a piece of cake to make! (Great, now I’m craving cake!)
Click here for the step by step instructions and the recipe.
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