Giant pasta shells stuffed with spinach and ricotta filling and topped with your favorite marinara.
Dinner time comes at the same time every night. Unless it’s volleyball season at my house and then it’s much earlier or later than normal. Sometimes I feel like the kids are having two dinners. Such is life with teenage athletes. This is why I love a fast, filling, and easy dinner. These stuffed pasta shells are perfect and make for good leftovers as well.
Stuffed Pasta Shells
Ingredients
- 6 ounces jumbo pasta shells half a standard box
- 1 egg
- 15 ounces ricotta cheese
- 1 teaspoon garlic minced
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese freshly grated
- 1 tablespoon parsley
- ⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- 1 cup frozen spinach thawed and drained.(optional)
- 3 cups marinara I like Raos homemade.
Instructions
- Heat oven to 375 degrees and bring a large pot of water to a boil.
- Once the water comes to a boil, heavily salt the water and add in the shells. Cook for 9 minutes and then drain.
- In a large bowl, mix together the ricotta, egg, Parmesan, garlic, spinach, parsley, red pepper flakes, oregano, salt, and pepper.
- In a 2-quart baking dish, spread ½ cup marinara sauce on the bottom of the pan.
- Spoon the ricotta mixture into the cooked shells and place into prepared baking dish.
- Top with the remaining marinara sauce. Sprinkle with the Mozzarella cheese.
- Bake for 30 minutes, or until cheese is melted and browned.
Be sure to save this recipe to your PINTEREST boards so you have it for later.
Also, be sure to check out these other pasta recipes.
Some things I love when making this dish are a good pot for cooking the pasta in as well as a nice strainer and casserole dish.
