While reading the Food Network magazine for October, scavenging for cute halloween ideas for our October 30th party, I stumbled upon this recipe for Cheesy Stuffed Shells. Well, after being sick for so long, I was craving comfort food, and thought of those jumbo shells that my mom used to fill with tomato and ricotta cheese, so I bought some from the grocery store last weekend. I had to get creative with a few ingredients and I left a few out, but it I think it turned out pretty okay.



CHEESY STUFFED SHELLS

Active: 40 min Total: 1 hour, 25 min

Serves 4 to 6

FOR THE SAUCE


Kosher salt
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/2 cup grated zucchini (I didn't have any :( so I left it out)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
Freshly ground pepper

FOR THE SHELLS

1 12-ounce box jumbo pasta shells
8 ounces silken tofu (skipped the tofu too)
1 10-ounce box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry (I used fresh)
1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups shredded mozarella cheese (Too much in my opinion, I left some out)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 clove garlic, minced
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Cooking spray


1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Make the sauce: heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the carrot, zucchini, onion and celery and saute until soft but not brown, 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the basil, oregano, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.


2. Meanwhile, prepare the shells. Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook for 8 minutes; drain. Mix the tofu, spinach, cottage cheese, parmesan, 1/2 cup mozarella, the egg and garlic in a medium bowl and season with salt and pepper.


3. Mist a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Spread about 1 cup of the sauce in the dish. Stuff the cheese mixture into the shells and place in the baking dish, open-side up. Pour the remaining sauce over the shells. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with the remaining 1 cup mozarella and bake for 15 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving.

Comments:
- First of all, this recipe took a lot longer than an hour and 25 minutes. It took me like two and a half hours to make. Mostly because I have never made anything this complex before.
-The recipe calls for a cup of mozarella cheese to spread on the top, but I think that is an obscene amount of cheese; I just sprinkled some on top
-I didn't have any tofu or zucchini, so those will be absent from the photos. I know the purpose of the recipe is to sneak in protein, but I don't have that problem, so I would probably leave out the tofu in the future.

ALSO, I would like to note, I did have to make a sauce for this recipe and it turned out fine...I think the other recipe (the tuna fish one) didn't use enough liquids.