Ingredients
- 20 jumbo pasta shells (about half a 12-ounce box)
- 1 24- ounce jar marinara sauce (or 3 cups homemade sauce)
- 1 15- ounce container part-skim ricotta
- 2 cups baby spinach, chopped
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
- 8 oz chopped mushrooms
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan (2 ounces)
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup grated mozzarella (4 ounces)
Directions
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Set an oven rack to the highest position and heat oven to 400° F. Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain and run under cold water to cool.
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Spread the marinara sauce in the bottom of a large broilerproof baking dish.
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In a bowl, combine the ricotta, spinach, basil, mushrooms, Parmesan, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Spoon the mixture into the shells and place them on top of the sauce. Alternatively, transfer mixture into a large ziploc bag, snip one corner, and pipe filling into shells.
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Sprinkle the shells with the mozzarella and bake until heated through, 10 to 12 minutes.
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Increase heat to broil. Broil the shells until cheese begins to brown, 2 to 5 minutes. Serve with the salad.
Recipe Notes
Adapted from Real Simple
I amazed myself, the recipe was so easy and the bomb.com, my wife just loved it also. I’ll be making this a lot!!!
So happy to hear this recipe was a hit! Thanks for the comment, Brian 🙂
Hi – I did not want a tomato based sauce, so made a lighter mushroom sauce (onions, garlic, white wine, chicken broth, and mushrooms), I also added about 1/4 pound of Italian sausage to the stuffing mix. Not vegetarian, but added a nice mixture of Italian herbs, etc – since there is ricotta and mozzarella, I added about 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg. the results were terrific and it made enough for 2 baking pans – one in the oven and one in the freezer. Recommend it.
My husband absolutely adores it and I generally end up making it once a week. It doesn’t always stay meatless, though. I’m known to add cooked chunked chicken into the mix and it’s just as amazing!
My son isn’t crazy about red sauce.. which makes me sad.. but he loves the white sauces.. Has anyone tried a bechamel or alfredo type sauce with this stuffed shell recipe?
Cooking this tonight!! DO I need to sauté the spinach and mushrooms before putting them in mix?!?
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I made it for dinner tonight and it was wonderful.
Yay!! 🙂
This reciepe is amazing.very easy and I used all fresh ingredients!!! I made Paul prudan red gravy from fresh ingredients as well!i love everyone’s variations,I would like to try the ground sausage!
GREAT recipe! I added in some extra herbs (fresh oregano and a touch of crushed red pepper, too). I also put only 1/3 of the sauce on the bottom, 1/3 IN the ricotta mix, and drizzled the remaining on top then covered with cheese. LOVE the fresh spinach rather than frozen! Will try adding sausage next time.
Hi there! I made this for dinner last weekend and it was super super delish!
Made it tonight and I substituted ground italian sausage for the mushrooms because myhusband wont go meatless ;)… so yummy
This looks amazing… Any suggestions for substituting the mushrooms? My roommate is allergic so I try to refrain from using them.
The original recipe in Real Simple doesn't use mushrooms (or basil), so you could just leave the mushrooms out and it should work fine.
Turned out great!
Thanks for this. I stumbled on your website looking for this recipe! off to make it for dinner…
Yes it does change. I used fresh spinach. If you wanted to use frozen spinach, it would be about 2-3 ounces of frozen spinach (just make sure you thaw and strain out excess water).
Does the spinach amount change using fresh vs frozen? Which did you use?
I have (had) a much more complicated go to recipe for shells. This one was much easier, and I think tasted even better!!
Hi! I made this tonight and my husband and I both loved it! I used frozen spinach (de-thawed) and it worked great!
Mmm, made this tonight! It was yummy. Just a few notes, the filling kind of gets watery, so I suggest making this with (thawed and drained) frozen spinach, or cooking the spinach and mushrooms separately before adding them to the filling. Other than that, perfect!
Tessa, you have such a beautiful blog and this is a great recipe! I also saw this in Real Simple and was thinking of trying it… glad it got rave reviews from you! Their recipes are always so great. I'm looking forward to exploring your recipes! 🙂
that looks fabulous! im an ABSOLUTE sucker for anything cheesy. mmm!
I love the look of this. The fact that it is not swimming in sauce really makes the dish. Thanks!
This looks fantastic! I love how the sauce is under the shells instead of spread on top, so the cheese can really get brown. I haven't made stuffed shells in years – that needs to be remedied!
I love stuffed shells – they really are a great, simple meal. And, like you said, leftovers are really tasty!
Umm, yeah. I could deal with that. 🙂
This looks so delicious….I have to make it soon
This looks delicious! And easy. Haha. Yep. Gotta loves lots of cheese. 🙂 Your photo is enticing as well.