Shells stuffed with spinach and three cheeses cooked in a fabulous tomato sauce with either Italian or chicken sausage. It makes enough for two dinners, one to enjoy and one to share or freeze for later.
I love Italian food but was not exposed to it much growing up, so I’ve never tried some of the more classic Italian dishes. You’ll find that stuffed shells are very easy to make. The photo of this dish in Jamie Deen’s Good Food is the type I strive for, but have not yet mastered. The shells look so delicious, that I just had to try it. Mine not only looked exactly like his photo, but the flavor was great.
The red pepper flakes add a nice little kick to the sauce which is full of flavor from the sausage. I’ve used both chicken sausage and Italian sausage and both were awesome.
Back to the recipe, if you want to lighten things up a bit, use chicken sausage and skim ricotta. I added a little sugar to the sauce, which I felt it needed. I was afraid that the sauce would overwhelm the rest of the dish, but it combined perfectly so that you could taste all of the flavors.
The last time I made it, they were out of shells at the grocery and I used manicotti instead. It tastes the same but takes a lot longer to stuff the manicotti then the it takes to stuff shells.
Another great reason to try this is that if makes two pans, so if you aren’t feeding a crowd, you’ll have an extra pan to freeze or take to a friend.
Adapted from Jamie Deen’s Good Food
Three-Cheese Stuffed Shells with Spinach and Chicken Sausage
Shells stuffed with spinach and three cheeses cooked in a fabulous tomato sauce with either Italian or chicken sausage. It makes enough for two dinners, one to enjoy and one to share or freeze for later.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: Entree
Ingredients
- 12 ounces jumbo pasta shells
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 lb italian chicken sausage, casing removed
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 28 ounces crushed tomatoes
- 15 ounces tomato puree
- 3/4 teaspoon italian seasoning
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 15 ounces part-skim ricotta cheese
- 10 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
- 1/4 cups grated parmesan cheese
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 cups part-skim mozzarella cheese, grated
Instructions
- Cook pasta, drain and let cool.
- Preheat oven to 350º. Spray two 9 x 13 baking dishes with cooking spray.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil and once it’s hot, add the sausage and cook until browned, stirring and breaking it up with the back of a wooden spoon, for 3-4 minutes. Stir in the onion and cook until softened, about 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then stir in the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for 1 minute, until fragrant.
- Stir in the crushed tomatoes, tomato puree, Italian seasoning, and sugar, and simmer on medium-high heat for 15 minutes.
- Mix ricotta, spinach, parmesan, eggs, and 1 cup mozzarella in a large bowl, season with salt and pepper, and stir until combined.
- Spread most of the sauce on the bottom of the prepared dishes. Stuff shells with about 1 tablespoon of the cheese mixture and place in the pans. Cover with additional sauce. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes, removing the foil during the last 5 minutes of baking.
- If you want to freeze the second dish, let it come to room temperature and then cover with plastic wrap and then foil. Let thaw completely in the refrigerator and bake as above.
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