Vegetarian recipe is a little fussy to make but yields a comforting, satisfying meal
I felt like making pasta for dinner the other day and when perusing the different dried types at a grocery store, the jumbo shells caught my eye. It had been a while since I had prepared them, and when I have, they’ve always yielded a comforting, satisfying meal.
I put a box of them in my grocery cart and my next decision was what to stuff them with.
In the past, I’ve made meat fillings, seafood ones, and ones rich with ricotta cheese and spinach. I decided to go with the latter, but opted to leave out the spinach and replace it with squash.
To make the stuffed shells, I cooked the pasta in a generous amount of simmering salted water. You don’t want to rapidly boil the shells, or they could fray around the edges and split. That said, I do always cook a few more shells than my recipe calls for, just in case some do split during cooking.
When cooking the shells, I did not add a bit of oil to the water as suggested on the box, as the generous amount of water prevents the shells from sticking together. Adding oil to the water also coats the pasta with a thin film of it, making the shells more difficult to hold onto and stuff.
When cooked, the pasta was drained, cooled in cold water and drained again. A heaping teaspoon or so of mashed, seasoned squash was then set in each shell. The shells were then filled with a ricotta/egg mixture, flavoured with garlic, herbs, Parmesan cheese and nutmeg.
The stuffed shells were set in a baking dish that had a generous amount of tomato sauce-like passata di pomodoro in it. The shells were then topped with some tangy, grated asiago cheese, and then baked until hot, bubbly and delicious.
The shells are a little fussy to make because you do, of course, have to individually stuff each one. But you can make the shells oven-ready hours in advance. If you do that, cover the dish of them with foil and keep refrigerated until ready to bake. And add a few minutes to the baking time, as you’ll be starting from cold.
Serve the stuffed shells with a simple green salad or caesar salad, and some warm Italian bread, buns or garlic bread.
Jumbo Pasta Shells with Ricotta and Squash
Saucy, baked, jumbo pasta shells, tastily filled with mashed squash and an herb- and garlic-flavoured ricotta cheese mixture.
Preparation time: 60 minutes
Cooking time: 60-62 minutes
Makes: four to five servings
20 jumbo pasta shells (plus a few more, just in case some split during cooking)
2 cups cubed, peeled banana …….