Cheese Stuffed Pasta Shells with Meat Sauce

What can I say?  I love cooking Italian food.  The last time I had stuffed shells was at Buca Di Beppo for my 29th birthday party.  I think that was a lesson learned not to ever plan a birthday party or have a birthday other than the big ones.  I think once you celebrate the big 21 there's no need to celebrate and go all out with friends until the big 30.  Maybe 25 can be an exception.  My 25th was an amazing party with friends and family. My dad volunteered to host it and there ended up being a kid's jumper, a cotton candy  machine, and karaoke.  The latter was inevitable.  My dad will come up with any excuse to whip out the good ole karaoke machine.

These shells are topped with my basic meat sauce.  See the older post for the recipe.  I used whatever cheeses I had in the fridge and it came out perfect!


Serves 4 - yields about 20 shells

Ingredients
1 box of jumbo shells (you will only use half, but double the recipe if you want more shells)
Basic tomato meat sauce
1 cup of Ricotta Cheese
1 cup of Parmesan Cheese divided
1 cup of Mozarella cheese divided
4 tablespoons of chopped parsley leaves (I use about half a bunch)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 egg

Directions:

  1.  Prepare the meat sauce and preheat the oven to 350F
  2. Boil half of the jumbo shells in the box according to package directions
  3. In a medium sized mixing bowl, mix together the egg,  Ricotta cheese, parsley,1/2 of Parmesan, and 1/2 of the Mozarella Cheese.  Add about 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper.  
  4. Stuff each shell with the cheese mixture
  5. Spoon a layer of meat sauce to the bottom of a 9x11 baking dish.  Place stuffed shells seam side down and cover with the rest of the meat sauce.  Sprinkle remaining Parmesan cheese and bake in middle rack for 25 minutes.  Sprinkle remainder of Mozarella cheese and bake for another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.  


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