Stuffed Shells

I love Italian food. I probably get that from my mother, the number cruncher. By the way are our taxes done yet? She is by no means Italian, but she could probably eat it for every meal. As payment for her hard work in preparing our tax return, we let her pick where she would like to eat dinner and then pick up the tab. She almost always picks an Italian restaurant and never picks the drive thru Italian place in town. Even when we owed money last year!
I always feel like, other than tomato sauce out of a jar with some spaghetti noodles, Italian food takes some time to prepare and additional time to bake. I wish I could tell you this is a simple dish to make and put together in no time, but it isn't. This is somewhat of a time consuming meal to put together, but all good things come to those that wait, right? Or in this case, all good things come to those that take the time to prepare it! Trust me, this is a really great meal and well worth the time and effort it takes to prepare.

Ingredients:
1 lb. sausage (optional)
15 oz. ricotta cheese
1/2 c. parmesan cheese
1/2 c. mozzarella cheese
1 T. fresh parsley
1 clove garlic
1/4 t. pepper
20 jumbo shells, about half of a 12 oz. box
3 1/2 c. prepared tomato sauce or 28 oz. jar of tomato sauce


Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees and putting a large pot of water on the stove top over high heat. Boiling water will be needed to cook the jumbo shells later.
I know my oven isn't preheating. Do as I say, not as I do.

Lets talk about boiling water. The phenomenon of water boiling is often taken for granted in the kitchen. Boiling is a phase change from the liquid state of matter to the gaseous state of matter. The boiling point of a liquid is reached when the vapor pressure, the pressure of particles above the water, is equal to the atmospheric pressure. Pressure is measured by the number of collisions of particles per unit area. To make water boil faster you need to increase the vapor pressure by trapping the particles in the vapor state above the liquid. To put it simply, put a lid on it! The particles that escape into the vapor state will be trapped and begin colliding with each other, which in turn, increases the vapor pressure. Once the vapor pressure is equal to the atmospheric pressure you're in business!

This also relates to boiling water at higher elevations. Water will boil faster on the top of a mountain because the atmospheric pressure is less.

I used turkey sausage this time. Sometimes I like to play, "Can you tell I tried to make this healthier?" with Mr. T. Although, I am not so sure that making this dish with turkey makes it all that much healthier. The Today show keeps having the author of "Eat This Not That" on, which has totally rocked my perception of what is healthy for you. For example, regular bacon is better for you than turkey bacon and salads at restaurants are equivalent to eating a dozen donuts! No, that revelation didn't make me go out and buy his book, it makes me turn off the TV when he comes on. I would rather be ignorant than in denial.

On a related note, the type of meat used can vary from ground beef to turkey sausage. In fact, meat is totally optional in this dish. It would be filling enough to serve as a main dish without meat.
Brown the meat of your choice in a skillet. If you are using ground beef you would also want to add some dried Italian seasonings.
Drain the meat on a paper towel.

In a medium sized bowl combing the parmesan, ricotta, and mozzarella cheese. I used fresh mozzarella but shredded would work just as well. Aren't the little mozzarella balls so cute? The package said they were pearl size - so I couldn't resist! I used the left overs to make pizza bites later in the week. They were so so.

Next, it is time to add some seasonings to the cheese mixture. Grab a handful of parsley to chop. I used the fresh parsley in my tomato sauce, cheese mixture, and to garnish the finished shells. If I remember - which I rarely do - I will chop it all at once.
This isn't parsley from my garden, but soon, very soon I hope to be cooking with herbs from my garden.

Chop the parsley.
Add 1 T. of the chopped parsley, garlic and pepper to the cheese mixture. There is no need to add salt to this dish, the cheese has more than enough.

Stir the cheese mixture. Doesn't that look great?

Add half of the meat to the cheese mixture. Mix the other half of the meat into your sauce.

Stir the cheese mixture. Doesn't that look even better? Sorry - I know I said that meat was completely optional in this dish, but I prefer to eat meat! Sorry Lib Lawyer, I think I know your stance on this one. And no, I don't want to read any books about it either. Remember, I choose ignorance over denial!

The water should be boiling by now.

Cook the shells. Since the shells will also be baked in the oven I like to only boil them for half of the time stated on the back of the box. The noodles need to be soft, but not al dente. For these noodles, the adjusted cooking time was 6 minutes.

Now it is time to assemble the stuffed shells. Start by placing a small amount of your tomato sauce in the bottom of the 9x13 baking dish. Just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. This is a trick I learned from my mom, the number cruncher, when making lasagna. By the way, I really, Really, REALLY hope we get a refund. Just keep running the numbers until we get one, ok? Next, take the shells and place the yummy-meaty-cheesy-goodness mixture into the shells, about 3 T.

Top the stuffed shells with your prepared tomato sauce. I also had some shredded mozzarella cheese on hand so I topped the shells with that. Extra parmesan would be great on top too.

Cover and bake for an hour or until cheese is heated through. It is important to keep the shells covered to continue cooking the pasta. When there is about 10 minutes left on the timer, remove the foil.

Remove the dish from the oven and let sit for 10 minutes.


Yummy! I served the stuffed shells with sauteed squash and garlic bread. It was a fantastic meal. Well worth the time and effort!
This recipe makes alot, especially for just me and Mr. T. It can easily be halved or before baking the shells freeze half for another night. To cook frozen shells, simply, let the shells thaw in the refrigerator over night and then cook as stated above.