This recipe for Authentic Italian Stuffed Shells in 1 Hour features a simple, but flavorful three-cheese filling of ricotta, mozzarella, and parmesan, with a touch of spinach, garlic and toasted pine nuts. The shells are then baked in a bed of my Best Spicy Sicilian Pasta Sauce until bubbling hot and the aroma is irresistible.
This stuffed shells recipe can be made with any standard tomato-based pasta sauce, but if you have a free weekend afternoon to make my pasta sauce recipe from scratch, it’s well worth the the extra time. The creaminess of the stuffed shells pairs perfectly with this hearty meat sauce.
Without further ado, I give you this nostalgic recipe for stuffed shells!
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A Little Nostalgia, a Little Passion Come Together in This Recipe for Authentic Italian Stuffed Shells in 1 Hour
If my mother had a recipe for pasta sauce, I don’t know what it was. I’m not certain she even knew what it was exactly. She was one of those cooks who tasted her way through everything and adjusted with a handful of this and a pinch of that along the way. Everything she made was delicious. Everything except for that pea soup we had an epic 4-hour standoff over when I was six, but that is neither here nor there. I got to leave the table without having to eat it, so I have no hard feelings.
But in all seriousness, I learned to cook by simply watching her in the kitchen. A few years back, my daughter asked me for my pasta sauce recipe, and I realized I didn’t have one either. At least, not officially until the day I posted the recipe for my Best Spicy Sicilian Pasta Sauce. Like my mom, I had developed a sauce over the years by trial, error, and taste, but that post was my way of capturing the basics of my sauce-making process for my daughter and others to build on.
In a similar fashion, I didn’t have an official stuffed shells recipe until the day of this post.
So, here we are committing to print the foundation of my stuffed shells recipe. The cheese filling is similar to what I remember growing up, but it’s evolved over the years to include spinach, garlic, toasted pine nuts (which are optional), an egg and a small amount of breadcrumbs for structure, and just the right amount of seasoning.
Easier and Faster than Lasagna
My daughter has this charming habit of texting me a picture of what she’s made for dinner on a given night. She is fearless in the kitchen and a wonderful cook in her own right – certainly better than I was at her age. I always enjoy seeing what she’s whipped up in the kitchen. Recently, she texted me a picture of a perfectly layered, gloriously cheesy lasagna – the kind with the crisp edges everyone fights over. I was jealous – so very jealous – but she lives an hour away and there was no way I could justify the late-night, mid-week road trip to her house for a square or two, but I came dangerously close.
These stuffed shells are a pretty close second to a good lasagna, and they come together with a lot less work. If you get a craving for a lasagna, but aren’t up for the time it takes to build one, this stuffed shells recipe will satisfy your taste buds quite nicely.
In this recipe, the shells are cooked for approximately 9-10 minutes so that they are a little firmer than al dente. The shells are then drained and allowed to cool slightly before piping or spooning in the filling. The firmer shells are sufficiently pliable to fill, and will finish cooking in the sauce during the baking process.
While the shells are cooling, use that 10 minutes to prepare the filling. In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat and saute the pine nuts, minced garlic, crushed red pepper and spinach until the spinach has cooked down. Likewise, while the spinach mixture is cooling, mix the cheeses, egg, bread crumbs, and salt together. Add the spinach mixture and combine thoroughly. That’s all there is to it!
The stuffed shells are then gently nestled in the sauce, covered with aluminum foil and baked at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes until they are bubbling hot. The additional steam from the sauce will cook the shells to the perfect, toothy texture.
Optional and Essential Ingredients
If you’ve been reading along on the blog, you know I like to build flexibility into my recipes. If an ingredient is crucial to the flavor or structure of a dish, I’ll let you know, but if something can be substituted or omitted, rest assured I’ve already done the testing for you. For example, this recipe calls for 1 egg and 2 Tablespoons of plain Panko breadcrumbs to be added to the cheese mixture. This is a creamy filling. The egg and bread crumbs stabilize the filling so that it maintains its creamy texture without oozing out of the shells during the baking process. The egg and bread crumbs are essential to the texture of this filling.
The pine nuts and crushed red pepper flakes are optional, however. If you don’t like the added pop of heat from the red pepper or you have an aversion or allergy to pine nuts, you can leave them out and still have a really delicious and satisfying dish. However, the pine nuts add a nice textural element to this stuffed shells recipe, so I encourage you to include them in the mix.
Let’s Get Social!
If you’re looking for an appetizer that’s easy to make and would be a nice first act to a stuffed shells dinner, give this Roasted Pepper and Cannellini Bruschetta recipe a try. I promise it won’t disappoint.
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Blessings & enjoy!
Authentic Italian Stuffed Shells in 1 Hour
Course: MainsCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Intermediate8
servings25
minutes35
minutesThis recipe yields 24 stuffed shells and will serve eight people at three shells each.
Ingredients
- For the Sauce
3 cups prepared pasta sauce such as my recipe for Best Spicy Sicilian Pasta Sauce
- For the Shells
24 shells (plus a few extra to account for breakage), cooked according to box instructions until just under al dente.
- For the Filling
2 cups fresh spinach, stems removed
1 clove fresh garlic, minced
1 tsp. olive oil
1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes (optional)
1/4 cup pine nuts (optional)
2 cups whole milk ricotta
1 cup mozzarella, shredded
1/2 cup parmesan, shredded
1 large egg
2 Tbsp. plain, Panko breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp. dried parsley flakes
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Prepare the pan with sauce
- Spread 3 cups of prepared pasta sauce in the bottom of a 9-inch x 13-inch baking dish. Set aside.
- Prepare the pasta
- Cook the pasta shells according to box instructions – approximately 9-10 minutes in boiling water. Drain and set aside to cool while you prepare the filling.
- Prepare the filling
- In a medium-size saute pan, add the olive oil and pine nuts (if including). Saute over medium heat for two minutes, moving the pine nuts constantly. Add the garlic, spinach and optional red pepper flakes and continue to cook until the spinach has wilted – an additional two minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.
- While the spinach is cooling, combine the ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, bread crumbs, salt, parsley, and egg. Add the spinach and mix until completely incorporated.
- Using a piping bag or spoon, fill the shells and place on top of the pasta sauce.
- Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake in the oven at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes. When finished baking, remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving.
Notes
- Can I use Part Skim Ricotta? Yes, but the shells won’t be as rich as whole milk ricotta.
