Stuffed shells with sauce

I wanted to cook one more time before I dove back into perfecting my foam and working on expungements.

As I was ambling around the grocery store yesterday morning, I paused before I grabbed the shells. Hmm. Manicotti? Shells? Manicotti? Shells? I furrowed my brow and opted for the shells. I decided to save my piping bags and energy for next weekend. But just as a note, the below recipe applies to either. Same concept of filling yummy pasta with cheese.

::gathering my raw materials::

Ingredients:

- 10-12 jumbo shells, boiled (al dente, since you're gonna be baking them)

- 12 oz of yummy cheese - for this i used:
ricotta, gorgonzola, mozzarella, and asiago

- 1 cup meat or pasta sauce - for this i used:
1/2 lb ground lean sirloin, red/orange/yellow peppers chopped,
chopped onions, garlic, and basil

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350F.

In a medium pot, boil 10-12 jumbo shells for about 10-12 minutes. The idea is to not overboil them, and to keep them slightly chewy. They're going to be baked later on, and will absorb more moisture later on in the oven.

While you're waiting for the water to boil, work on your sauce. I browned some ground sirloin with chopped onions, peppers, garlic, tomato, and basil. Add your sauce, throw a lid, (or if you've got a franken-kitchen like me, an upside down pie tin) and let simmer on low heat.

Onto the cheese. This isn't hard really, and entirely up to you how you want to jazz it up. Start off with ricotta (it's nice, mild in flavor, and you can add all sorts of yummies to heighten the flavor, while maintaining a creamy texture.)

I added some crumbled gorgonzola, shredded asiago, pepper, dried oregano, and a little leftover chopped basil. Mixed it all up with a wooden spoon, and had a nice pastey cheese mixture.

I also sliced up the last ball of mozzarella I had from a previous recipe, but I set aside to add later.

Once your pasta is done, throw them in a strainer, and rinse with cold water. When cool enough, grab a spoon and carefully open up the shell. Now stuff it! I threw in a slice of mozzarella along with the ricotta filling.

Repeat this process until you've filled all your shells. Arrange in a baking pan.

Pour some of your sauce onto the shells, and top off with grated cheese if desired. Pop into the oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until cheese melts and it's nice and bubbly. I didn't worry about my shells drying out, because there was a lot of moisture from the cheese and the sauce.