This is another one of those dishes where I buy the ingredients a few days ahead of time and eagerly look forward to cooking all week long. This is not a difficult dish to make by any means; in fact, it’s quite simple. It’s just very time consuming.
To start off with you have to make the fillings, you want them to cool down before you stuff the shells.
For the meat filling (enough for 15 shells):
1 pound ground meat
Half an onion
3 toes of garlic
Fresh basil
Fresh parsley
1 egg
Grated parmigiana (4 oz)
Shredded mozzarella (4 oz)
Italian bread crumbs
Olive oil
Season with pepper, garlic powder and salt
First you’ll want to sweat down an onion until it is translucent, then add in the garlic and ground cow meat. Season and brown the meat then drain and set aside to cool.
Once the meat is cool down add in the other ingredients. You want to work the mixture until you have the consistency of uncooked meatloaf.
For the cheese filling:
24 oz of ricotta
6 oz of freshly shredded mozzarella
5 oz of grated parmigiana
3 eggs
Plenty of fresh basil, oregano and parsley
Season to taste with salt and pepper
Combine all ingredients and stir until equally incorporated and seasoned to taste
::set both fillings on the fridge to cool::
For the marinara:
Half an onion diced
4 toes of garlic
24 oz of crushed tomato
Basil, oregano and Italian parsley
Swear down the onion until clear and soft then add in the garlic until fragrant. Once the garlic is fragrant add in the tomato and let simmer for 30-45 minutes. Add in the herbs and season with crushed red pepper, black pepper and salt to taste.
Set aside
Alfredo or cream sauce:
3 tablespoons butter
3 toes of
Minced garlic
12 oz of heavy cream
1 cup grated parmigiana
Melt butter under low heat and add in garlic. When the garlic is fragrant and cooked, add in the heavy cream and slowly increase the heat until you have a simmer. Begin whisking it together until thickened and add in the parmigiana cheese, then cut heat and keep whisking until you have a uniform sauce.
Now that all the components are ready it’s time to make these shells.
Shred 4 oz of mozzarella and 4 oz of parmigiana to use as a topping and garnish
Also chop some parsley and basil to also use as a garnish.
Get some salted pasta water boiling and then add in the shells.
Cook them for half the time as the package directions. You want them al dente, to help you stuff them. They will finish off in the oven.
When the pasta is done remove them and dump them into cold water to stop the cooking process, then drain them and bring them to your work station.
Simply stuff the shells with whatever stuffing you are using. Add them to a baking dish lined in marinara sauce.
Place a dollop of the marinara sauce on each shell and then sprinkle with parmigiana, mozzarella, basil and parsley
Bake at 350 for 35 minutes and garnish with more cheese and herbs.
Hope you guys all enjoy this dish, it was a complete home run here!