Ok friends, if you’re a cheese lover like me then buckle up! This recipe is for you! Pasta + cheese are truly the best comfort food combination. This stuffed shell recipe combines three of my favorite cheeses for a truly delicious meal! Growing up in an Italian-American household, I cannot remember a time when we weren’t eating a pasta dish. We all have our personal favorites, and one of my true pasta loves has always stuffed shells! I think I’ve preferred it because each shell is a little clam of cheesy, gooey goodness! My mom always made these kinds of meals on Sundays and it truly brings back such fond memories of my childhood!
Fast forward to current my mom life! We make stuffed shells often during the winter months because it’s a warm, hearty meal and trust me when I say – QUICK & EASY! Look, we are not reinventing the wheel here and making pasta sauce from scratch. Homemade means “made at home”, so I will just take that and run with it, haha! Truth be told, any time I make a pasta with a red sauce, I almost exclusively use Rao’s Marinara Sauce. While it can be a pricier option than other brads, I purchase a two-pack from Costco for $10.99. If you purchase from Target or your local grocery store, it could be closer to $8 for one 24 oz jar. But believe me when I say, it’s the best jar sauce out there! You will not be disappointed.
Grab a glass of red wine and read all about how we make it:
Ingredients:
1 Box of Jumbo Shells
1 Jar of Rao’s Marinara Sauce
32 oz Ricotta (large container)
2 Eggs
4 tbs Parsley, chopped
1 cup Grated Parmesean
1 cup Shredded Mozzarella
1 tsp Nutmeg
Salt + Pepper
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400. Start boiling your water for the pasta shells.
- Pour your ricotta cheese into a mixing bowl. Add eggs, parmesan cheese, chopped parsley, and nutmeg. Stir to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste. Next, add shredded mozzarella to the mixture and combine.
- Add shells to boiling water and cook according to directions (I prefer al dente – try not to overcook because you don’t want your shells too floppy when you’re adding the cheese – they could break).
- In a baking dish, line the bottom of the dish with a thin coat of marinara sauce. This is what the shells will sit on!
- When pasta is tender, grab a spoon and stuff your shells with the cheese mixture. Repeat this many, many times as I’m sure you will have a decent amount of shells to work with!
- When shells are stuffed, use a spoon and coat the top of your shells with hearty dollops of marinara sauce (you don’t need to smother them with it though. It shouldn’t be swimming in sauce. You will have sauce left over in the jar most likely).
- Place your shells in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes.
- Enjoy with a small salad, green beans, glass of wine and breadsticks.
The great part about this dish is it tastes even better as leftovers! Another really fun aspect to stuffed shells is you can get really creative with what you add to the cheese mixture. We sometimes add chopped spinach or thinly sliced zucchini! The possibilities are really endless and there’s no wrong way to do it. My kids love the shells, and always ask for more.
For a quick, easy glimpse into how we make it head on over to my Instagram reels and check it out!
