Tasty Thursday: Spinach Stuffed Shells

Easy Spinach Stuffed Shells

I love pasta, to an extent.

I make pasta a lot in the house because my husband loves it and can eat it everyday but usually after 3 days I tap out. I simply can’t eat anymore pasta!

This is definitely an exception.

I learned how to make stuffed shells from my sister in law many many moons ago. I dare to say 10 years ago because I am pretty sure my husband and I weren’t even engaged then. I remember going to Virginia to visit her and my nephew and he introducing me to shells for the first time.

Like a great sister in law she showed me exactly how to make it, because honestly the whole notion of stuffed shells sounded like it was way beyond my culinary capabilities. I would learn that day that it was way easier than it seems and the end result looks phenomenal.

It really a matter of mixing different ingredients and stuffing (spooning) the mixture into the shells for baking. I have done stuffed shells with ground beef, cheese only, & ground turkey. Today’s recipe is filled with 70% spinach and 30% lowfat ricotta cheese. I originally found this recipe on SkinnyMom.com, and as usual I didn’t have all the ingredients so I made due with what I had. 🙂

What I loved the most about this recipe was that it was definitely mostly spinach. It pairs perfectly with a leafy spring salad and it is a rather quick meal, prep time for me was really no more than 20 minutes! The original recipe calls for 2.5 cups of meat sauce but since I am not a sauce fan I really only used a 1/2 cup of regular sauce.

Ingredients

• 12 oz box jumbo shells pasta
• 10 oz bag frozen spinach
• 8 oz part-skim Ricotta cheese
• ¼ cup Parmesan-Reggiano cheese, grated
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp low moisture, part-skim, shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2½ cups Skinny Meat Pasta Sauce

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Add pasta shells to boiling water and cook for 8-10 minutes until almost al dente.
3. Drain pasta shells and spread pasta shells onto a sheet of wax paper to dry.
4. Place spinach in microwave and cook for 5-6 minutes as directed on package.
5. Drain spinach and make sure to remove all of the moisture from spinach until it is dry.
6. In a medium sized bowl, mix spinach, fat-free ricotta cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese, salt, garlic powder, and pepper.
7. Using a 9×13 casserole dish, spoon a small amount of Skinny Spaghetti and Meat Sauce to cover the bottom of dish.
8. Next, fill pasta shells with spinach mixture by using a spoon to place mixture inside each pasta shell.
9. Place filled pasta shells face up into casserole dish.
10. Top filled pasta shells with Skinny Spaghetti Meat Sauce and sprinkle reduced-fat Mozzarella cheese on top.
11. Heat pasta shells in oven for 15-20 minutes and serve hot.

Have you ever tried stuffed shells? What kind of version have you made?