Saturday, September 27, 2008

Three Cheese Stuffed Shells










I recently made these shells for my brother's birthday dinner. I thought that I would post them because they're really quite easy and taste great. This shell recipe is very similar to a lot of recipes for cheese manicotti, but these shells are so much easier to stuff. I will never stuff manicotti shells again...unless someone begs me to. These can be made a day or two ahead of time and refrigerated, then just pop them into the oven 45 minutes or so before you are planning to serve them.
I didn't think to get a picture of them once they were all hot and bubbly, sorry...but I was hosting a dinner!! Here is a picture of the shells after I drained the water off of them. If you place them on a piece of foil sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, they cool off faster and don't stick together. The other two pictures are of the shells stuffed. I did a pan with regular marinara and a few with pesto sauce...as my brother requested. Of course, you do need to cover the shells with sauce once you are done stuffing them!! These are fabulous with the french bread recipe I posted a little while back!

1pkg Jumbo Shells (about 20 shells)
1 beaten egg
12 oz Cottage Cheese, drained
½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 T snipped fresh parsley
1 lb, 10 oz jar of Spaghetti Sauce

Cook pasta shells according to package directions. (Make sure to not over cook them, or they'll be too soft!) Drain well and cool shells in a single layer on a piece of greased foil or parchment paper. For filling, stir together egg, cheeses, and parsley. Spoon filling into each cooked shell. Pour a small amount of spaghetti sauce into the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan or large casserole dish. Place shells in a single layer in pan and pour enough sauce over shells to cover them. (If you’re making a lot of these, you can also layer or stack the shells with sauce in between them. See picture above.) Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes, or until heated through. Makes about 4 main dish servings.

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