Best Stuffed Shells

The most delectable ricotta and spinach mixture is placed within these cheesy, saucy stuffed shells. I think you will share my feelings for love. Speaking of love, you might serve these shells over a cozy Valentine’s Day supper at home because they are so attractive.

Several more reasons to adore this recipe include:

• It produces a lot of shells, making it ideal for feeding a large group.
• You can freeze leftovers for a later date or have them for lunch.
• Making this recipe only requires a small amount of chopping.
• This dish for stuffed shells uses straightforward, traditional Italian ingredients. Ricotta cheese, mozzarella, a little Parmesan, garlic, and seasonings are required, along with giant shells and marinara sauce.

I added 1 entire pound of leafy greens to this cheese dish to make it more redeemable. You can use kale or spinach, either fresh or frozen. The greens produce a filling with a nice, mild flavor and a magnificent, brilliant green color. By a wide margin, these stuffed shells are the greatest I’ve ever had. For more amusing variants and advice, continue reading.

 

How to Make the Best Stuffed Shells with Spinach & Ricotta

This recipe comes together easily, with minimal chopping. You’ll find the full recipe below, but here’s a rundown:

1. First, blanch the greens. This is really easy—just dump them in a big pot of salted water and cook until they’re wilted (about 30 seconds). Using tongs, transfer the greens to a large bowl of ice water. This step preserves their beautiful, bright green color. Once chilled, squeeze all the water out of the greens and set aside.
2. Cook the pasta shells in the same pot of water you used for the greens. The water will be a fun shade of greenish yellow, but the pasta will turn out perfectly. We’ll cook the shells until they’re almost al dente—in other words, we want them nicely pliable but not fully tender. They’ll finish cooking in the oven.
3. Then, whip up the filling in the food processor. Since we’re blending up the garlic and chives, we don’t need to bother chopping them finely by hand.
4. Stuff each shell with a generous spoonful of filling and place them in snug little rows across marinara-lined bakers.
5. Spoon marinara sauce over the shells. We don’t need them completely covered. Finish them off with the remaining mozzarella cheese.
6. Bake, and serve.

 

Stuffed Shells Tips

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Bust out your largest pot and baking dish for this recipe. Ideally, use a 5.5-quart or larger Dutch oven or stockpot to boil the greens and pasta. Then, you’ll transfer all of the cooked greens to a very large bowl of ice water. Finally, you’ll need an extra-large baker (even larger than 9 by 13 inches) or a combination of two bakers like you’ll see below (say, 9 by 13 and 8 by 8).

The filling comes together nicely in a food processor. If you don’t have a food processor, no problem. Chop up the ingredients (chop the chives and garlic finely, and the cooked greens into very small pieces) and stir the ingredients together by hand.

To save time, use store-bought marinara sauce. My favorites are Rao’s (it comes pretty close to my homemade marinara) or Newman’s Own organic. I try to avoid marinaras with added sugar, since it’s unnecessary. Or, make my homemade marinara sauce the night before (be sure to double the recipe to have enough).

Save time (and money) by using frozen greens. Frozen greens are less expensive and work perfectly well for this recipe. Just defrost them in a colander under running water, squeeze out excess water, and it’s good to go.