Here’s the Recipe

Serves 4-6

Prep time: 45 minutes

Cook time: 1 hour

Total time: 1 hour and 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 box jumbo pasta shells

Almost 1 full 24oz container of cottage cheese (you will use almost the whole container except for maybe 3 tablespoons of it)

1/2 cup ricotta cheese (about half of a 15 oz container)

1 cup parmesan cheese divided (fresh or jarred)

1 pound ground meat (I like beef, but you can use ground chicken, turkey, or pork)

1 jar pasta sauce (I make my own but you can use your favorite from the store too. Hubby loves Prego!)

1 cup mozzarella cheese (or as much as you like to add on top)

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Crushed red pepper to taste

1 clove garlic, minced or grated

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prepare a casserole dish (or disposable tin) by spraying with non-stick spray and set aside. Once your sauce is warmed up, add about 2 spoonfuls of sauce to the bottom of the dish.
3. While the oven warms up, start boiling a large pot of water on the stove. As that starts to boil, heat up your pasta sauce and brown the meat. Once the water is boiling, cook the pasta for the recommended time on the box and drain.
4. Once the meat is browned, stir in the garlic, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool slightly.
5. In a bowl, combine the cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, and half of the parmesan cheese. Note: If you want the cheese mixture to be firm in the shells after baking then add 1 egg to the mixture (I don’t do this simply because I want to eat any extra filling with any extra shells after I get it made and I can’t do that with raw egg, lol).
6. Once the meat has cooled slightly mix it in with the cheese mixture until it is well combined.
7. Once the pasta is cooked and cooled enough to handle, start to fill each shell with the cheese and meat mixture. Place each shell in the prepared casserole dish until it is full. Top the shells with sauce (reserving some for after baking). Then top with mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese and cover with tin foil.
8. Bake for 45 minutes covered. For the last 15 minutes, bake uncovered. Remove and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Then serve. Enjoy!

Notes:

1. For vegetarian: If you are subbing out the meat for frozen spinach then just make sure to thaw and remove any excess water from the spinach and add it to the cheese mixture and season the cheese mixture with the spices. In this case, I would also sub out the fresh garlic for garlic powder so you do not have the raw garlic taste. Everything else is the same! If you are subbing out the meat for fresh spinach and/or zucchini (diced), then sauté the spinach and/or zucchini in some olive oil and add the fresh garlic and seasonings as it cooks. Let it cool slightly before adding it to the cheese. Everything else is the same!
2. To freeze: I would use a disposable tin if you are going to freeze this dish. All you need to do is complete steps 2-7 and then cover the dish/tin with foil and freeze. Before cooking, thaw completely and bake at 350 for 45 minutes covered, and then bake for the remaining 15 minutes uncovered.

Inspiration:

I am Italian so pasta is basically like second nature to me. One of our favorite pasta dishes is stuffed shells. My husband never had any good Italian food until he met me and I opened his eyes to stuffed shells, carbonara, lasagna, chicken parmesan, and more. He’s a pretty picky eater (textures aren’t his thing) but these stuffed shells are one of his favorite meals.

I also love this recipe because it is freezer friendly, you can adapt it to make it vegetarian, and you can make it in advance! In the last month of my pregnancy, I froze a bunch of meals so we would have dinners for weeks after Cooper was born and this recipe was one of them! The only difference is to put it in a disposable tin tray instead of one of the casserole dishes that you frequently use. Everything else is the same! Honestly, most of the things I make can be put in the freezer – I am all about stocking up!

And, you can even make this vegetarian easily if you wanted to. I have made a version that was spinach and another that was spinach and zucchini. You just sub out the meat for the veggies and everything else is the same!

Plus, you can make this ahead of time. Trust me, I am all about time saving in the kitchen and sometimes I will make this in the morning and pop it in the fridge until dinner time (or even do it the day before!). As a working from home mom, anything that saves me time later in the day is a win.

Copyright 2023 Jessica Nash. All rights reserved.