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
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a 13x9 inch baking pan, spread about 1 cup of marinara sauce on the bottom
In a medium sized bowl, mix together ricotta, eggs, parmesan cheese, italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper
Fold in spinach and italian sausage
Spoon about 2 tbsp ricotta mixture into each cooked, cooled shell
Place filled shell into pan
Continue filling each shell until mixture and shells are gone
Pour remaining 3 cups of marinara sauce on top
Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top of sauce
Cover with foil, and bake for 45 minutes
Uncover, bake for 15 minutes
Remove from oven and serve with extra sauce and extra parmesan cheese.
*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