We wanted something hearty and Italian for dinner on Sunday, so I thumbed through my copy of Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen and found her recipe for baked stuffed shells. It was an easy recipe and something we could make together. SP made the sauce and I assembled the shells.
It's a pretty simple recipe - undercook the shells so you can stuff them without them falling apart. The filling is ricotta cheese mixed with cubes of fresh mozzarella, chopped parsley, grated cheese and a beaten egg all seasoned with salt and pepper. After you stuff the shells you layer some sauce in the bottom of a pan, arrange the shells, top with more sauce and cover with slices of fresh mozzarella.
The recipe made a ton of shells, so I froze half the recipe for another time. The baked shells looked fantastic in the pan with the golden brown cheese, but not as great when put on the plate:
... but they certainly tasted fantastic. I love easy recipes like this and really, you can never go wrong with two of my favorite cheeses - mozzarella and ricotta.
These look so good and cheesy!!! Thanks for posting, especially with the pictures! :)
ReplyDeleteThis looks great!! And you can always trust Lidia!
ReplyDeleteYou don't need no stinkin recipe for this :) It's like lasagna :) sort of...Lidia Shmidia.
ReplyDeleteWhat I really wanted to say was that I love to make this and wrap the shells with plastic wrap in pairs and then freeze them. They make a most excellent lunch and are a perfect portion size for me. Just take them out of your freezer and pop 'em in your lunch bag and you're good to go.
Eezy Breezy!
Mmmmm,this looks delicious & so easy just what I like.:)
ReplyDeleteOh yeah. You say the word "stuffed" when it comes to pasta and I am aaalll over it. I prefer mine with spinach too though. Heaven.
ReplyDeleteJodi - Don't you love the golden brown cheese? Yum!
ReplyDeleteColleen - I love Lidia for all things Italian. :)
longhair - Ha! Don't be disrespecting Lidia! I like the idea of freezing the shells in pairs, although that's definitely not enough for one serving. :P
Denise - Definitely delicious AND easy.
Melissa - LOL...well, these were definitely tasty. I'll have to try spinach next time.
Mmm, looks so good. Wish I had some now!
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