Saturday, February 03, 2007

Stuffed



I was at the grocery store and in the mood for something different to make for dinner. Having been away all week left me in the need of some kitchen time. However, I
did have some criteria that needed to be meet. Dinner had to be a) something I could have leftovers of and b) something that I would be able to make in a hour.


Stuffed shells

Ahh the perfect thing for dinner: stuffed shells. It has pasta, has meat, has cheese, freezes well, reheats well and easy to make. Seriously could this get any easier or annoying (maybe if I was Rachel Ray)


I sort of made this up as I went along but here are the basic ingredients:

- 1lb groud turkey
- 1 16 oz can of Muir Glen Crushed Tomatoes with Basil
- Half a jar of Prego with Mushrooms
- 1 box of Barilla large shells ( I picked Barilla because that was what was in front of me)
- 1 bag of Sargento shredded mozzarella cheese (again because that was what was in front of me)
- half a 32 oz container of Sorrento whole milk ricotta cheese (could of gone with the 15 oz)
- some parsley, oregano, salt, pepper, basil
- fresh grated parmigiano reggiano cheese
- 1 package frozen spinach
- 2 Roche brothers sweet Italian chicken sausage links


- Put pot of salted water on to boil
- Brown the turkey with some salt and pepper and set aside ( I do have photos but they are sort of gross, if you really want them let me know), then set aside
- Cut up the sausage in chunks and then cooked till through in the same pan, then set aside
-Microwave according to directions the spinach and drain until dryish
-Mix the sausage, grounded turkey and spinach together with your hands (again, I do have photos but they are sort of gross, if you really want them let me know)
- Add about half the ricotta cheese to the sausage, turkey and spinach mix. Add seasoning to taste.
-Drain pasta and shells
- In a 9x12 dish, pour the crushed tomatoes over the bottom just to give the shells something to sit on.


- While still warm, put as much of the mixture into each shells as you can. In my dish, I can fit rows of 4 together so over all, I can do 4 rows of 4 with 2 additional shells tucked in at the end. it is about half the box of shells. It should look something frighteningly like this.




Once all the little fellas are comfortably tucked into their beds, I then cover them each with a little of the Prego and the shredded mozzarella.


Then into the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes or so.


I sprinkled a little bit of freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese on top before serving. The end result was very very tasty.


What I liked about making this was that it falls into a classic friends and family category. Even if you know vegetarians you could do a half and half with little to no extra effort.


1 comment:

wheresmymind said...

RR truly is evil