Italian Stuffed Shells Recipe
If you’d like an idea for what to do with your fresh herbs, or if you’d like a new meatless meal idea, keep reading for an easy recipe. (And here are more meatless meal ideas to help with the budget.)
But first… Kent & I are having a blast with our first garden.
I love that he gets into it as much as I do, maybe even more. He takes such good care of it, so much so that he really would probably rather I stay out of there, lol. Since we had the nasty SNAKE sliding through last week, I’m A-okay with that. (However, I was in charge of fertilizing with some fish poop stuff we got from our all-natural guy, notice how big all our plants are? Well, maybe his watering and weeding had more to do with it…?) Thankfully, our neighbor and friend Joe was home when the snake showed up, he got it out and threw it down into the woods while I bravely screamed. my. head. off. From the deck. Believe it or not, I was still a big girl when I needed to harvest some spinach yesterday for this recipe. I checked the perimeter, got in, clipped it off, and got the heck out.
Besides the spinach, we also used our OWN fresh herbs in this Italian stuffed shells recipe, right from our pots on the deck. I can’t believe how exciting it is to eat what we’ve grown ourselves, and hope we don’t ever take this for granted.
Here's our daughter and I harvesting stuff from the garden:
Italian Stuffed Shells Recipe
Ingredients
Shells
- 1 box jumbo pasta shells — one 12 oz. box is plenty. It makes a lot.
Filling:
- 2 batches of my homemade yogurt cheese. (Or 2 boxes of regular cream cheese.) Often I'll also add in some garlic Boursin cheese, and maybe some small-curd cottage cheese, too. You can't screw this up!
- 2 handfuls spinach, chopped
- 1 Tablespoon or more of various herbs, like parsley, oregano, basil, and thyme. Either chop it up, or I tore everything into small pieces.
- 4 garlic cloves and another 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, if desired for more flavor
- 1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
For the top:
- 1 1/2 jars of your favorite organic marinara, about 20 ounces
- Mozzarella, parmesan, or your favorite cheese, shredded
Instructions
- Start by cooking the shells according to the package directions.
- While the pasta is cooking, mix the filling ingredients together.
- Butter an 11x14 stainless steel or glass baking dish. (Avoid aluminum or Teflon.)
- Strain the shells once they're done cooking and spoon the filling into each one.
- Set them into your buttered pan. Pour the jars of your favorite pasta sauce over the top. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top.
- Bake at 375* for about a half hour, or until it’s bubbly and the cheese is golden brown.
This is so good, let me know if you love it too? 🙂
- An oldie but a goodie…What do Christmas pictures of our home have to do with Health & Nutrition? What does any of it have to do with size 7x underwear?
- Have you read these posts about natural parenting?
- More Meatless/Vegetarian Meal Ideas
Meal Planning Help!
Sick of planning meals and answering the question, “What am I going to feed these people?” No matter what kind of eater you are… Check out these affordable interactive easy-to-use meal plans where the work is done for you! Also read over my review to see what I thought of it.
Overwhelmed With Joy! says
Yum! I love stuffed shells. 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
I hope you’ll join me again this Friday for another Favorite Ingredients Friday!
Amy @ Finer Things says
That looks delicious, and I agree… having a garden is a Finer Thing!
Kelly says
Hi Nicole, yes, kids can be tricky to get the veggies in them, but thankfully they do love butter and real cream, etc., which are probably more important than veggies anyway. 🙂 It’s always such a thrill when we do get something by them, though!
Nicole says
stuffed shells is what I make for friends 🙂 I’m making baked pasta tonight, with similar ingredients, but cannot seem to sneak anything green in. My kids like veggies, but hate when I put green stuff into lasagne. I think tonight I’ll try putting it in the sauce instead. Funny I remembered your yogurt cheese and was going to make that, but I also bought fresh ricotta so I can use that instead. Zucchini or eggplant sheets in this would be yummy, kids are still a work in progress on my “eat real food, mostly vegetables” plan.
Nicole
Dawn says
The suggestions for zucchini for the shells sounds great as well. I will try it this way, too!
Nicole Feliciano says
Thanks so much for linking up to Momtrends’ Friday Feasts. Hope to see you again next week!
Nicole Feliciano
Betsy says
Ha, Meg! I was just thinking that I’d try this with the zucchini, and make it lasagna style. I’m thinking it will be a little less work than stuffing shells, but same taste.
Yummy-sounding recipe, Kelly!
I just bought some fishy fertilizer, too. I bet it would do the plants more good if I actually put some in the garden, though.
Meg says
I usually do basically the same thing (I use my homemade goat ricotta, which avoids that “sour” taste), but I save some steps and just make lasanga… We actually made some a few weeks ago (in the middle of our zucchini rush) where we subbed thinly sliced zucchini for the noodles – SO tasty! 🙂
Meg
Nicole Feliciano says
Happy Friday! Gorgeous work this week. I hope you
angie says
garden looks great and meal sounds wonderful
Alyss says
This looks fantastic! I think I’m going to try it with zucchini noodles soon. Yum! thanks for the recipe!
Alyss
Living A Whole Life says
Awesome recipe idea – I can’t wait to try it!
Living A Whole Life
Kelly says
Henriette, don’t break your no-grain rule, just use Carrie’s idea – thanks, Carrie, I think that would work GREAT!
Dawn, I wish I liked brown rice pasta (I’ve tried Tinkyada and others), but I just don’t, I’d rather use the zucchini idea. 🙂
Kelly
lo says
We love stuffed shells — and I’m thinking the herbs really make this recipe!
Enjoy that gardening! I always think maintaining a garden is well worth the work. It pays off with dividends!
lo
Mary Ellen says
Yum! Can’t wait to try this recipe. We eat several meatless meals a week to stay in budget and combat the extra expense of buying grass-fed beef and pastured pork. Plus, I have plenty of fresh basil growing on our porch.
Mary Ellen
Mary Ellen says
Yum! Can’t wait to try this recipe. We eat several meatless meals a week to stay in budget and combat the extra expense of buying grass-fed beef and pastured pork. Plus, I have plenty of fresh basil growing on our porch.
Mary Ellen
Dawn says
That looks so delicious! My daughter must eat gf, so we use Tinkyada Brown Rice Shells. They taste exactly like regular shells, no difference! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Local Nourishment says
It’s a good thing I read this post early in the morning while I still have time to get some ingredients on the shopping list. If I’d read it right before dinner I’d be so disappointed that whatever I cooked didn’t measure up to this mouthwatering feast!
Now you’ve gone and made me hungry.
Local Nourishment
Henriette says
Looks so great – I thinki t might be worth breaking my no grain diet
for this
Thanks
Henriette
Organic and Thrifty says
Oh Kel, that filling looks AMAZING! Being 50% Italian (and having made my family’s herb-cheese raviolli recipe since I was a tot), I heartily approve!!!!
To make it more low-carb, might I suggest wrapping that deliciousness with thinly sliced “sheets” of zucchini?
Then, I’d cover with marina and cheese, just as you’ve indicated! I don’t know for sure how it’d work, but I would love to try it (I’ll let you know!!!!)
Oh, and your garden looks incredible. How much space do you have back there?!?!
Also, you’ve inspired me to go find fish poop fertilizer! I’ve been making my own concoction (compost tea) that smells something awful….I tend to think the more like sewage it smells, the better it is for the garden? Gosh, I hope so!
LOL
Carrie
https://www.organicthrifty.com
Organic and Thrifty