Shell not for sale down by the seashore

 

This summer looked very little like past summers. This summer I had my best girl home while I worked from home a few days a week. Something she's been wanting to do has been to learn how to cook, she's done LOTS of cooking. She enjoys prepping dinners (wonder where she got that from?). We decided to try out Stuffed Shells. This recipe is HUGE. It makes 2 - 9 x 13 pans - so we did a half a recipe. I cooked the shell noodles, but she did the rest. We used a cookie scoop to fill the shells because that seemed like an easy way to do it for smaller hands. At one point I heard a crash and crying, so I went running into the kitchen. My girlie was on the floor, chair on the floor, her hand full of red something and splatters of red everywhere. I thought the absolute worst. Thankfully, what actually happened wasn't nearly as bad as I feared. The red, was the marinara, the chair she was on was tipping, she tried to get her balance and stuck her hand in the pan of sauce, then it splattered all over. She ended up with a nasty bruise on her foot, but thankfully that was it.

The stuffed shells were delicious, but we agreed it was a lot of soft squishy filling. We might add some spinach to the filling and maybe even some meat to the sauce. We have another half a box of shells so we'll have to try that again.

Classic Stuffed Shells
12 oz pasta shells 1 box, about 40 shells
4 cups low fat cottage cheese
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese divided
3/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
salt and pepper to taste
48 oz marinara sauce 2 jars of Rao's recommended
15 oz alfredo sauce 1 jar
chopped fresh parsley optional, for garnish

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook pasta shells for 8 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside to drain. Pour both jars of marinara sauce into the bottom of two 9x13 baking dishes, one jar per pan.
In a large bowl, stir cottage cheese together with 1 cup mozzarella, Parmigiano Reggiano, eggs, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper. Fill a disposable piping bag (or large freezer bag) with filling. Snip the end of the bag to create a 1-inch hole and fill each shell. (Spooning it into the shells also works, it just takes a little more time.) Place the filled shells into the prepared pans, 20 shells per pan.
Spoon prepared alfredo sauce overtop the filled shells. Sprinkle the tops with remaining 1 cup of mozzarella (1/2 cup cheese per pan), cover with foil sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, and bake 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake uncovered for the remaining 15 minutes to brown the tops.
Alternately, you can keep the pans covered for the full 45 minute bake time and broil the tops at the end of the cooking time.
Remove from oven and set 5-10 minutes. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve hot.