Stuffed Shells

So last week I made some homemade pasta sauce

 I used that sauce in tonight's great recipe

I think I've mentioned before that cooler weather makes me want warm, cheesy, savory comfort foods

Usually, I would make lasagna

But... since I'm doing this blog now, I figure you don't want multiple recipes for lasagna right?

So, I go to the next best thing....

Stuffed shells

It's pretty much still lasagna.... only fancier.

And a little more work

But, it's good and I like good food!

My mother in law made this last Christmas and I really liked it.

I was just too lazy to make it myself....lol

But I wanted to give you something different and I really had a lot of fun doing it

The kids had fun watching me too

They liked the sea shell shaped noodles .... A LOT. 


Ingredients:

- 1 box large pasta shells
- 3/4 C Parmesan (shredded not the powder stuff)
- 1 (24oz) small curd cottage cheese (or Ricotta cheese)
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 tsp basil
- 1 tsp garlic salt
- 3/4 tsp pepper
- 4 C spaghetti sauce
- 1 1/2 C Mozzarella Cheese (shredded)

Directions:

Boil noodles until al dente ( or slightly underdone)
Drain noodles and set aside
Spread 1 C sauce evenly on the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish ( so the shells don't stick)

 In a bowl, mix the cottage cheese, egg, 1/2 C parmesan, basil, garlic salt and pepper.
*This next step is not necessary, but makes stuffing shells much easier.  You can just use a spoon instead.
Using a spatula, scrape the cheese mixture into a ziplock bag/pastry bag

Snip off the corner of the bag
Squeeze cheese mixture into each shell. Aprox 2 Tbs per shell
Don't overstuff shells.
Close up the seam and place shells on their sides into baking dish close together

I fit 2 rows of 10 shells and then 4 extra on the bottom
(the extra cheese you see laying in there is just what I had left over)
Once all shells are filled and placed, sprinkle remaining 1/4 C Parmesan over shells
Pour remaining 3 Cups sauce over top
Top with 1 1/2 C Mozzarella
Bake uncovered @ 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes
When cheese is browning and sauce is bubbling it's done

***Review:
This was a great dish.  I was very happy with how it turned out.  We had company over for dinner and they said they loved it.  I know the hubs and I did!  The kids didn't get a chance to try it, because they ate before our company arrived.  I honestly didn't think they would eat it anyway... but of course they begged for some and liked what they tried.  Go figure the one time I try to feed them a different dinner, they want what we're having!   I will be making this again and again! 

**Tips:
The ziplock bag trick is great.... it makes it so much easier to stuff the slippery noodles.  This is really the hardest part of it all.  Also, just to make things easier on me, I actually boiled the noodles in the morning, drained them and put them in the fridge.  When it was time to bake them I took them out and ran warm water over them to get them pliable again so I could stuff them.  It was great and was one less thing to do at dinner time.  But be careful not to tear them while working with them... you want them in one piece.
If you are using a jarred sauce instead of homemade, then I think it would be great to fry up some italian sausage and sprinkle it on top of the shells before baking as well.  Or it could just be a vegetarian dish with no meat. I personally would have loved to add spinach to this dish as well, but one of our dinner guests does not like veggies so I opted out of the spinach.  But if you were to add it, you could put it right in with the sauce or in with the cheese stuffing. Either way would be great.  Add a little crusty italian bread and you have the perfect meal! Mmmmm!