These stuffed shells are cheesy, saucy, and stuffed with the most delightful ricotta and spinach filling. I’m in adore, and I think you will be, as well. Talking of love, they’re so lovely that you seem to serve these shells for a sentimental Valentine’s supper at home.
A few more reasons to cherish this recipe:
- It yields a parcel of shells, so it culminates in serving a crowd.
- Leftovers are awesome for lunch, or you can solidify them for later.
- This recipe is generally simple to make, with negligible chopping.
This stuffed shells recipe highlights straightforward and classic Italian ingredients. You’ll require enormous shells, marinara sauce, ricotta cheese, mozzarella, a small Parmesan, garlic and seasonings.
To make this corny dish more productive, I included a whole pound of new greens! You can utilize new or solidified spinach or kale. The greens abdicate a ravishing, dynamic green filling with a beautiful, gentle flavor. These stuffed shells are truly the best I’ve ever had, by a long shot. Keep perusing for a few fun varieties and tips.
How to Make the Best Stuffed Shells with Spinach & Ricotta
This recipe comes together effortlessly, with negligible chopping. You’ll discover the full recipe underneath, but here’s a rundown:
- First, whiten the greens. This is truly easy—just dump them in an enormous pot of salted water and cook until they’re shriveled (around 30 seconds). Utilizing tongs, exchange the greens with an expansive bowl of ice water. This step jams their excellent, shining green color. Once chilled, crush all the water out of the greens and set aside.
- Cook the pasta shells in the same pot of water you utilized for the greens. The water will be a fun shade of greenish yellow, but the pasta will turn out flawlessly. We’ll cook the shells until they’re nearly al dente—in other words, we need them pleasantly flexible but not completely delicate. They’ll wrap up cooking in the oven.
- Then, whip up the filling in the nourishment processor. Since we’re mixing up the garlic and chives, we don’t need to bother chopping them finely by hand.
- Stuff each shell with a liberal spoonful of filling and put them in cozy small columns over marinara-lined bakers.
- Spoon marinara sauce over the shells. We don’t require them totally secured. Wrap up them with the remaining mozzarella cheese.
- Bake, and serve.
Stuffed Shells Tips
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Bust out your biggest pot and prepare a dish for this recipe. Ideally, utilize a 5.5-quart or larger Dutch oven or stockpot to bubble the greens and pasta. At that point, you’ll exchange all of the cooked greens for a very large bowl of iced water. At long last, you’ll require an extra-large bread cook (indeed bigger than 9 by 13 inches) or a combination of two dough punchers like you’ll see underneath (say, 9 by 13 and 8 by 8).
The filling comes together pleasantly in a food processor. If you don’t have a nourishment processor, no issue. Chop up the fixings (chop the chives and garlic finely, and the cooked greens into exceptionally little pieces) and blend the fixings together by hand.
To spare time, utilize store-bought marinara sauce. My favorites are Rao’s (it comes lovely near to my hand-crafted marinara) or Newman’s Possess Natural. I attempt to maintain a strategic distance from marinaras with included sugar since it’s superfluous. Or, make my homemade marinara sauce the night sometime recently (be beyond any doubt to twofold the formula to have enough).
Save time (and cash) by utilizing solidified greens. Frozen greens are less costly and work impeccably well for this formula. Fair defrost them in a colander beneath running water, press out the overabundance of water, and it’s great to go.
These shells make awesome leftovers! Store them in the fridge for up to 4 days, or in the cooler for a few months.
Stuffed Shell Recipe Variations
I’m totally stricken with this recipe as composed underneath. Here are a few fun ways to alter it:
- For lighter, less corny shells, use half as much mozzarella or exclude it completely.
- For standard cheesy shells (no greens), double the ricotta, finely chop the chives, press or mince the garlic, and blend the blend together by hand.
- For veggie shells, replace the greens with almost 2 cups cooked or simmered vegetables.
- For dairy-free or vegetarian shells, use my vegan acrid cream in put of the ricotta, and sprinkle some vegan Parmesan on best. Discover more subtle elements in the formula notes.
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
This stuffed shells recipe highlights corny, impudent shells stuffed with a tasty spinach and ricotta filling. Make these stuffed shells for supper this evening! The recipe yields approximately 28 shells, almost 8 servings.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 pound (16 ounces) fresh child spinach or infant kale, solidified spinach or kale, or 1 ½ pounds Tuscan kale or spinach bunches, washed and stems removed
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 12 ounces jumbo shells
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled and cut into a few segments
- 15 ounces (or 1 pound) ricotta cheese or cabin cheese
- 8 ounces (2 cups) ground part-skim mozzarella, divided
- ½ cup (2 ounces) ground Parmesan, also additional for garnish
- ¼ cup (⅔-ounce) chives or green onions (for the most part green parts), cut into ¼-long pieces
- Freshly ground pepper, to taste
- ½ teaspoon red pepper chips, to taste (overlook if delicate to spice)
- ¾ teaspoon fine ocean salt, to taste
- 1 large egg, gently beaten with a fork
- 3 cups (24 ounces) marinara sauce, custom made* or store-bought (I utilized Rao’s)
- Fresh basil for embellish, optional
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat the stove to 375 with racks in the center and upper third of the stove. Bring a huge Dutch stove or stockpot of water to bubble over tall warm. Liberally salt the water (utilize at slightest 2 teaspoons). If you’re not utilizing solidified greens, fill a huge bowl with ice water for blanching.
- If you’re utilizing new greens, include them in the bubbling water and cook fair until shriveled, approximately 20 to 40 seconds. Utilizing tongs (take off the water in the pot), exchange the greens to the ice shower, and let them cool down. Deplete off the water and crush as much abundance of water from the greens as conceivable. Set aside. (On the off chance that you’re utilizing solidified greens, put them in a colander and run cool water over them until they’ve full defrosted. Press out as much overabundance of water as conceivable, and set aside.)
- Bring the water in the pot back to a bubble. Tenderly include the pasta shells in modest bunches so they don’t break on the way in. Cook until flexible but fair bashful of al dente, almost 10 minutes, blending regularly so they don’t adhere to the pot. Deplete the water, return the noodles to the pot, and tenderly mix in the olive oil to prevent the noodles from staying. Set aside.
- Turn on your nourishment processor and drop the garlic through the nourishing tube. Once the garlic is chopped and stuck to the sides of the bowl, halt the machine and rub down the sides. To a great degree, crush off any remaining water in the greens, at that point include them in the bowl. Handle until the greens are chopped into little pieces.
- Add the ricotta and handle until well-mixed. Include half of the mozzarella, saving the rest for topping. Include all of the Parmesan and chives, almost 10 turns of dark pepper, the ruddy pepper pieces, and salt. Mix well. Taste, and include extra salt, pepper, or ruddy pepper pieces if wanted. At long last, include the egg and prepare until mixed. Set aside.
- If you have an extra-large preparing dish (bigger than 9×13 inches), spread 1 container of the marinara sauce over the foot. Something else, partition 1 glass marinara between an expansive (9×13 inches) and medium-sized dough puncher (say, an 8-inch square). You might be required to include another sprinkle of sauce to equally coat the foot of the pans.
- Stuff each intaglio shell with a piling spoonful (around 1 ½ to 2 tablespoons) of the green blend. Put each stuffed shell in the dough puncher in columns. (You might have a few extra or broken shells; spare them for another utilize.) Spoon the remaining marinara sauce over the tops of the shells. Best the shells with the remaining mozzarella.
- Cover the baker(s) firmly with thwart and heat on the center rack for 30 minutes. At that point, expel the thwart and put the bread cooks on the upper rack. Heat for 5 to 10 more minutes, until the mozzarella is completely softened and turning fair and marginally brilliant (you can heat longer for a more brilliant impact, but the greens will be gotten to be less vibrant).
- Garnish the shells with a light cleaning of ground Parmesan and a few little or torn new basil clears out. The remaining shells will keep well in the fridge for up to 4 days, or solidify for a few months.