Sausage and Spinach Stuffed Shells
Author: 
Recipe type: Pasta
Cuisine: Main Dish
Cook time: 
Total time: 
 
Delicately stuffed shells, topped with sauce and lots of mozzarella cheese!
Ingredients
  • *1 box of Jumbo Shell Pasta, cooked, drained, and cooled on parchment paper (to prevent sticking)
  • *4 cups of your favorite Marinara sauce (check below recipe for link to my marinara sauce)
  • 16 oz. Ricotta Cheese part-skim
  • *1 lb. bulk Italian sausage, sauteed and cooked through, and drained
  • 1 cup of frozen chopped spinach, thawed, with all the water squeezed out
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ cup parmesan cheese, grated
  • 2 tsp Italian Seasoning
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese or 16 oz or fresh mozzarella, sliced (or more!)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. In a 13x9 inch baking pan, spread about 1 cup of marinara sauce on the bottom
  3. In a medium sized bowl, mix together ricotta, eggs, parmesan cheese, italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper
  4. Fold in spinach and italian sausage
  5. Spoon about 2 tbsp ricotta mixture into each cooked, cooled shell
  6. Place filled shell into pan
  7. Continue filling each shell until mixture and shells are gone
  8. Pour remaining 3 cups of marinara sauce on top
  9. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top of sauce
  10. Cover with foil, and bake for 45 minutes
  11. Uncover, bake for 15 minutes
  12. Remove from oven and serve with extra sauce and extra parmesan cheese.
  13. *NOTES: When cooking pasta, follow package directions, but undercook by 2-3 minutes to prevent mushy pasta when it bakes. As for the marinara sauce, use your own recipe, the recipe that can be found here on girl and her kitchen, or a jarred version. It honestly is a forgiving recipe and any of your favorite sauces will do! For the sausage, buying it bulk is best instead of having to pull the casing off. If you have bought the sausage with casing, and dont want to pull it off, go ahead and just slice the cooked sausage thin to mix into the ricotta. Make sure you cook the sausage thoroughly before placing in ricotta because the baking time does not allow for the sausage to be fully cooked. Enjoy!
Recipe by Girl and Her Kitchen at http://www.girlandherkitchen.com/2018/11/sausage-spinach-stuffed-shells.html