I’ve made this a couple of different ways now. The first time I thought I would save time by putting my fresh spinach in a food processor and pulsing it for a rough chop. However, it ended up turning the ricotta cheese green. And while the taste was good, I didn’t love the texture.
So, this time I wilted the spinach by folding it into the cooked sausage mixture. The texture was great and the taste was amazing, even better than before.
One of my BFF’s, Liz, made it as well. She suggests adding more sausage, which sounds great also!
I found and adapted this recipe from Cook’n is Fun.
I used a large Ziploc bag, with a corner cut off, to pipe the filling into the shells. Serve with warm, rustic bread, Yum!!
Happy Cooking!
Ingredients:
Serves 4-6
- 1 -12 oz. package jumbo pasta shells
- 1 tbsp. olive oil **
- 1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped **
- 1 lb. ground sausage
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten **
- 1 -15 oz. container ricotta cheese
- 8 oz. fresh spinach, chopped OR 8 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained **
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving **
- 1 piece of bread (good time to use up a heel) **
- 1/2 tsp. salt **
- 1/2 tsp. fresh ground pepper **
- 2 -15 oz. cans diced tomatoes with Italian herbs, including the liquid
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella
- 1 tbsp. chopped fresh basil, sliced thin
- french bread, for serving (optional) **
** Ingredients are used in other recipes from This Week’s Menu, starred to help in your planning.
Directions:
- Turn the bread to breadcrumbs by processing for a few seconds in a food processor. Set aside.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook pasta shells according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add sausage to onions and garlic and cook through, about 6-8 minutes.
- Turn heat to med. low.
- Slowly fold spinach into sausage mixture. The heat from the sausage will wilt the spinach. Keep mixing, continually folding spinach and sausage until spinach is wilted and mixed well, about 5 min.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the egg, ricotta, spinach and sausage mixture, Parmesan, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper. Stir together to combine.
- Heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spread a thin layer of the chopped tomatoes in a 9 x 13 baking dish.
- Stuff each shell with some of the sausage and cheese mixture (I put the cheese mixture into a large ziploc bag, cut the corner and pipe the filling into the shells.) Arrange in the baking dish, open side up. Add the rest of tomatoes and smother over tops of shells.
- Sprinkle the mozzarella and Parmesan evenly over the top and bake for 25 min. or until heated through and cheese is bubbly.
- Scatter basil across the top and serve.
Enjoy!!
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