Three Cheese Stuffed Shells

These Three Cheese Stuffed Shells are a really elegant, beautiful recipe. Just take a look…
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How to Make Three Cheese Stuffed Shells:

First, we make an Italian sausage meat sauce, then we stuff pasta shells with ricotta cheese, mozzarella, lemon zest and basil, and then nestle those little shells in the sauce, covering them with loads of Parmesan cheese. Then we bake and as you can see the result is stunning! You’ll spend about 35 minutes prepping this meal and then it bakes for 35 minutes. While it bakes you can clean up, set the table and make a Caesar Salad!

Let’s Talk About The Pan You’ll Need: 

If you want to bake this meal in a cast iron skillet like I do,  you’ll need a big skillet, at least a 12″ pan,  anything smaller and you won’t be able to fit in all the sauce and pasta. If you don’t have a 12″ pan (or bigger) you can make the sauce, pour it into a casserole dish and bake the stuffed shells in the dish instead of a pan. Problem solved!

Three Cheese Stuffed Shells: Delicious Comfort Food

Rich, warm, cheesy and beautiful, an Italian comfort food meal in a little over an hour. Well worth the time I promise!

Love Pasta and Need More Recipes?

Try these Ten Pasta Recipes with Vegetables.

The Recipe: Three Cheese Stuffed Shells

What you need: a 12″ cast iron pan (or bigger). You will need a microplane to zest the lemon.

Print

Three Cheese Stuffed Shells

Prep Time

35 mins

Cook Time

35 mins

Total Time

1 hr 10 mins

 

A rich, savory comfort food meal

Course: dinner, Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: comfort food, Italian dinner, stuffed shells

Servings: 6 servings

Ingredients

Note: you will need at least a 12" skillet if you want to bake this recipe in the pan. If you don't have a big enough pan, you can cook the sauce in a pan, pour into a baking dish and make the rest of the recipe as instruted.

• 12 ounces large pasta shells
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 pound Italian sausage (you can use spicy or mild, or a combo of the two, it's up to you)
• 2 28 ounce cans of crushed tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 16 ounces whole milk ricotta
• 2 cups grated mozzarella
• 1/2 fresh basil leaves, chopped
• zest of one lemon
• 8 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed with water squeezed out
• 2 cups shaved Parmesan

Instructions

Tip: I placed the prep of the ingredients throughout the recipe because it's a time saver. If this overwhelms you, feel free to prep all ingredients before starting.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place oven rack in center position

2. Place a large pot of salted water on high heat. Cook pasta shells to package instructions, drain well and rinse with cold water. While you wait for water to boil and pasta to cook, prepare sauce.

3. Place pan on medium heat for two minutes. Add olive oil, when it shimmers, add sausage to pan. Cook for 7-8 minutes breaking it up with a spatula. Now it's time to prep your garlic.

   When sausage has cooked for 8 minutes, add crushed tomatoes, oregano, red pepper flakes, garlic and a couple of generous pinches of sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste. Stir, then let simmer on low heat for 15 minutes.

4. While sauce simmers, chop basil, zest lemon with a microplane, and place spinach in a colander and press with a paper towel until excess water is removed. In a bowl mix together ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, chopped basil and lemon zest. Stir, add some kosher salt, to taste and stir again. Set aside.

5. When sauce has simmered for 15 minutes, turn off heat. Add spinach to sauce and stir well.

6. Gently unfold shells and spoon about 1 1/2 tablespoons of ricotta mixture into each shell, place them in the pan on top of sauce. When you have used all the shells, sprinkle them with shaved parmesan, making sure they are covered well with cheese.

7. Transfer pan to oven and bake for 35 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool for five minutes. Serve. Tip: I usually place a cooking sheet on the oven rack below to catch any sauce drips that happen when sauce simmers.

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changes lemon zest, three cloves garlic, 12 oz shells, no peppers,