Stuffed Jumbo Shells

I made some Stuffed Jumbo Shells for dinner tonight. There are generally two types of stuffed shells, one made with ricotta cheese and the other with cottage cheese. I made the one with ricotta cheese today. Some people say that the original stuffed shells are made with ricotta cheese but I don't know. I just prefer the taste of ricotta cheese to cottage cheese. Here are the ingredients that you would need to make stuffed shells.

A pack of jumbo shells, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, frozen spinach, 1 lb of beef, one egg and pasta sauce.

First, cook the jumbo shells as per instructions on the box in boiling water until al dente. I only used half a box of shells.

Drain the shells and set it aside to cool. You can lay it out on wax paper to prevent it from sticking.

In a pan, brown 1lbs of ground beef. Once it's done, drain all the excess grease and fat from the pan.

Add in the pasta sauce and some Italian seasoning. Bring it to a boil. Turn off the heat, set it aside and allow it to cool.

Now it's time to make the filling for the shells. In a large bowl, mix one large egg with one small tub of ricotta cheese.

Add in one box of thawed spinach into the mixture. Fold it into the mixture.

Next, add in some shredded Mozzarella cheese. Crack in some freshly ground black pepper. Mix all the ingredients together well.

Once that is done, you are ready to stuff the shells. Make sure the shells are fully cooled before stuffing. Just pinch the shells open and using a teaspoon, fill it with the ricotta cheese mixture.

If you are not ready to cook them yet, you can just cover them with cling wrap and put it in the refrigerator. Therefore, you can make this a few hours ahead of time..if you want to.

Now it's time to assemble the whole dish together. Spray some non stick cooking oil on a large glass baking pan. Spoon some of the meat sauce that we made earlier and line the bottom of the pan.

Arrange the stuffed shells on top of it.

Pour some more meat sauce over the shells.

Cover it with aluminium foil and bake it in a preheated (375F) oven for about 40 minutes.

Once it's done, take it out from the oven and sprinkle on some parmesan cheese and parsley. It is now ready to be served!

We really like this recipe. It's so easy to make and really yummy to eat! :D