Stuffed Shells

Stuffed shells are an easy and delicious dinner recipe. Four cheeses including ricotta, mozzarella, mascarpone and parmesan make this the best! 

This easy Italian dinner recipe is the perfect comfort food! 

Why this recipe works:

Stuffed jumbo shells with ricotta are one of my favorite pasta recipes.

• You'll find that this is a rather easy dinner to make and you can even double the recipe to prepare one in advance!
• You only need to boil the shells for only a few minutes. This starts the cooking process and softens them enough to easily stuff, but they are still firm enough to not fall apart. I find that a short boil like that will also prevent them from sticking to each other.

Ingredients need to make this recipe:

• Jumbo pasta shells - these are found at most major grocery stores
• Eggs - these are the binder for the filling
• I was low on ricotta cheese but I had mascarpone in the refrigerator. Boy was that a happy mistake. I loved the combination! 
• Whole milk mozzarella and parmesan - both grated
• Dried Italian seasoning, lots of fresh basil, garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes for a small kick.
• Two jars of your favorite pasta sauce

How to make this recipe:

1. Start by preheating your oven and boiling a large pot of salted water. Cook the shells in the boiling water for only a few minutes. Then drain and set aside.
2. To make the filling, combine the ricotta, mozzarella, mascarpone and parmesan, reserving half the shredded cheeses for later. Mix in a couple eggs, herbs, garlic, salt and a bit of red pepper flakes for some heat.
3. Fill the pasta shells. You can use a spoon or you can transfer the filling to a plastic bag, snip the corner off, and pipe the filling into the shells.
4. Place the stuffed shells into a baking dish, smother them with pasta sauce, cover with the remaining shredded cheese, cover with foil, and bake. The moisture from the sauce will finish cooking the pasta shells.
5. When the shells are just about done, I like to remove the foil and let them continue cooking for a few more minutes to really melt the cheese.

Recipe variations:

There are two main variations that are different than these cheese stuffed shells and that would be stuffed shells with meat and or stuffed shells with spinach.

• If you wanted to add meat to your stuffed shells, people generally use ground meat or sausage. To do this, you would simply cook the meat until crumbly in a skillet, allow it to mostly cool, and then mix it with the cheese filling before you fill the shells.
• If you wanted to make spinach stuffed pasta shells, my preferred method is to use fresh pre-washed baby spinach. Chop it up really small and then mix it with the cheese filling prior to filling the shells. If using spinach, cook the pasta even less because the spinach will release additional moisture that will help the pasta cook in the oven.

Make ahead directions:

Italian recipes like this loaded with pasta, cheese and sauce are even better when prepared ahead of time. If you make this recipe the day before you're planning on baking it, or if you stick it in the freezer, you give everything even more time to let all that flavor absorb.

• To make ahead of time, simply prepare the entire recipe right up to the part where you stick the stuffed shells in the oven.
• Then, cover and store in the refrigerator if you're planning on cooking within the next couple of days else the freezer for longer term storage.
• Either bring the shells to room temperature before baking or increase the cooking time if the food is cold or frozen when it goes into the oven.