


OK you must be thinking is she kidding – Stuffed Shells? gotta be the most fattening food to eat , and it probably is outside of lasagna, baked ziti and the like. Super delicious and sometimes you just hafta roll with it. I wanted a crowd pleaser, vegetarian and something that can easily be made ahead and frozen. My mind wanders to yummy, gooey food with a lot of cheese because who doesn’t love a lot of cheese. Ah , yes Stuffed Shells. I wouldn’t cook like this all the time, but once every blue moon no one is getting hurt, right? I served with a salad , no need for bread and butter here. Homemade Maple Syrup Salad Dressing ( see on blog) and it was really pretty awesome. Took a few hours to prepare, mostly because I made my own sauce ( Sunday night sauce) but feel free to use a jar of prepared sauce if you must. This is a perfect meal to make ahead of time, and just pop into oven. If you use prepared sauce this would take app. an hour to prep. It is a bit time consuming stuffing all those shells. But well worth the effort.
This would make a perfect dish for Christmas alongside any meat or fish entree.
Of course if you love it with meat you can make a meat sauce and follow same directions.
Ingredients:
1 box Jumbo Shells ( you won’t use all but a lot of them break, etc.)
1 lb. Ricotta ( I used Part Skim)
1 lb. Mozzarella Shredded ( I used Part Skim) if you can obtain fresh mozzarella and shred it that would make it even better! whatever works for you
1 cup grated Parmesan ( any kind you like)
1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper
*marinara sauce or any red sauce I made my own and use my own recipe. If buying sauce and there are some delicious good sauces out there, you’ll need at least 1 jar and maybe a 1 1/2 jars. I make a big batch of sauce and freeze the remainder. It’s nice to have a little extra sauce in case you need it when you re-heat the stuffed shells.
Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Prepare Pasta , cook for between 12 and 15 minutes, you’ll want them soft but not undercooked at the center. Drain pasta and cool for easy handling.
Combine ricotta, 1/2 of the mozzarella, 1/2 of the Parmesan, parsley and egg in a bowl. Taste for Salt and Pepper.
When shells have cooled down, fill them with rounded spoonfuls of cheese mixture and arrange them seam side down in casserole dish. I used a 9 x 13 Pyrex. Top Shells with remaining sauce and remaining mozzarella and grated cheese. Place shells in very hot oven . You can turn on broiler for last few minutes , it should be slightly browned and bubbly. Let cool for a few minutes before serving.
Delicious!


I decided to try this recipe and it came out perfectly. I so seldom use the broiler to cook but it worked out so well I must pass this one on. Sheet Pan cooking has become one of my most favorite ways to cook for so many reasons most obviously the speed in which everything cooks together in one pan!!!! So amazing.
It’s officially winter now and 

















