Ricotta Stuffed Pasta Shells with Meat Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 box jumbo pasta shells* (340g)
- 250 g fresh mozarella** shredded/sliced
Meat Sauce
- 500g ground meat (~1.1lb) (I used 50% beef 50% pork)
- Half a large onion diced
- 4~6 cloves garlic minced
- 1 can tomatoes 28 oz (I used whole because I like it chunky)
- 2 tbsp tomato paste 30ml
- 3 tsp dried herbs (rosemary, oregano, basil, thyme)
- 1 tbsp oil 15ml
Cheese Mixture
- 750 g ricotta cheese (about 1 1/2 tubs)
- 100 g Parmesan cheese grated
- 1 handful fresh spinach chopped (like 30g??)
- 3 sprigs parsley chopped (optional)
- 1 egg
- Pinch of ground nutmeg
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of sugar (around half the amount of salt)
- Dash of pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Boil pasta shells as per instructions. You want to under-cook slightly since it'll be further baked. Drain and once cool enough, arrange in a large baking dish.
- In a large skillet (with tall sides) or pot, heat up oil and add ground meat. Let brown and mix evenly to break it up.
- Add chopped onions and garlic.
- Add tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, pepper, sugar, herbs. Add a bit of water to get the rest of the tomato out of the can. Let simmer for 15 min. Taste and adjust seasoning accordingly.
- Mix all the ingredients together for the ricotta cheese mixture.
- Use a spoon to stuff the shells with the cheese mixture. Arrange neatly.
- Pour meat sauce on top of the shells.
- Layer the mozzarella on top.
- Bake in oven for about 30 min. Optionally, you can turn the broiler on at the end for around 5 min til the cheese gets crispy and bubbly.
- Enjoy!
Notes
*You probably won't need the whole box but it's good to make a few extra in case some of them break. If you end up with leftover sauce you can eat it with the extra shells as a meal. If you're restricted by the size of your baking dish and have extra of everything, you can make freezer meals by prepping more in a smaller dish!
** I like using fresh mozzarella balls as opposed to the hard ones, up to you what you wanna use!