Stuffed Shells

This recipe was the first recipe I ever fell in love with. After the first time I made it, I was hooked. Full of gooey cheesy goodness and lots of yummy sauce, what's not to love. I have made them to celebrate a best friend bringing home her baby, a pot luck dinner with girlfriends, and as a special treat to someone I was dating. For the longest time I refused to give out the recipe for my shells. I will share my secret with you though, as long as you promise not to tell! I found the recipe on the back of the box of jumbo shells!! Take advantage of free recipes given with any product you buy. The objective of the company is to highlight how great their product is, so for the most part, they will not steer you wrong with a crappy recipe. They want you to enjoy the product and use it more often, so they are providing you with a recipe to do so. Take advantage! You may just fall in love, like I did! If not, oh well. That is part of the fun of cooking; finding out what you like and reinventing recipes to make it your own! I did reinvent this recipe a tiny bit. The original recipe called for 3/4 cup of Parmesan cheese. I felt the flavor of the Parmesan cheese overpowered the creamy flavors of the ricotta and mozzarella, so I cut it down to half a cup.

• 1 Box Jumbo Shells
• 4 cups ricotta cheese (I used my homemade cheese, yum!)
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp parsley
• 3/4 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 3 cups sauce

Heat oven to 350. Cook pasta according to package directions. Combine cheeses, eggs, parsley, oregano, salt, and pepper. Spread some sauce in the bottom of a 13x9 baking dish. Fill each shell with 2 Tbsp of the cheese mixture. Layer shells in dish and cover with sauce. If there are any remaining shells, place them on top of the first layer of shells and cover with sauce. Sprinkle with additional Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses if desired. Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes. At 30 minutes, remove foil and continue baking the additional 5 minutes.



I would suggest cooking the pasta ahead of time. Once they are drained, they will still be too hot to handle and they have a tendency to hold little tiny puddles of super hot water. I like to drain them and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. Then I separate any shells that are folded together and let them sit, to cool and dry out a little. The cheese mixture can also be prepared ahead. You can even stuff the shells ahead of time and refrigerate. When you are ready to cook, just add the sauce. If you are interested in freezing them, add the sauce before you freeze. They will hold up for 2 months in the freezer and you can pop them in the oven frozen. They will take about 2 hours to cook as opposed to the 35 minutes.

I never measure out 3 cups of sauce. I just use a jar of sauce and make a layer to cover the bottom of the pan and then sprinkle the top with as much sauce as I desire. I love sauce, so I usually wind up using the whole jar. I also don't measure out 2 Tbsp of the cheese mixture to stuff each shell. I use my hands and just start filling, it gets to be a messy process. I think I stuff them with more than 2 Tbsp, because I always run out of cheese before I run out of shells.

As I said up top, I have made these to treat a special someone! I was rewarded with a dozen red roses and 2 large bottles of red wine; Zinfandel and Chianti. Red Zinfandel is my absolute favorite (not to be confused with its cheap sister, White Zinfandel. You know, the pink crap). Now I am just bragging, but sometimes it is nice to have something to brag about....Look how pretty!