Stuffed Vegetarian Shells
When my aunt first told me about these shells, they sounded like a lot of work—but the recipe whips up in no time. Sometimes I add a little cooked bacon to the ricotta filling. —Amelia Hopkin, Salt Lake City, Utah
Ingredients
- 24 uncooked jumbo pasta shells
- 1 carton (15 ounces) part-skim ricotta cheese
- 3 cups frozen chopped broccoli, thawed and drained
- 1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
- 2 large egg whites
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 jar (26 ounces) meatless spaghetti sauce
- 2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese
Reviews
This was super simple and very yummy! I cut the recipe in half for just my husband and I. I used about 1.5C of leftover steamed broccoli, which I then chopped up. I subbed in small curd cottage cheese for the ricotta. I found that it fit more like 10 shells, not 12. I put the shells in an 8x8 dish, baked for about 23 minutes. I added as much shredded parm as I wanted, then put back in for 4 minutes. I felt that the amount of sauce could have been cut back a bit, maybe more like 5 ounces on the bottom and 5 on top (I had used a fire-roasted tomato pasta sauce). Overall, a great vegetarian meal I'll make again!
I cut this recipe in half and baked in a 8 by 8 dish. I also used reduced fat cottage cheese and half fat free ricotta. You will not even miss the meat! Homemade sauce makes them even tastier.
These shells were excellent. I used fresh broccoli instead frozen and simply cooked and drained the broccoli before adding it to the ricotta cheese. My young son really loved this.
I'm a beginner at cooking and this was pretty easy. Everyone liked the recipe.
I have been making these shells for over 50 years. They are a Holiday staple and are always asked for. The best part is, they can be made ahead and frozen until needed. You can take out 3 or 30. Voila, super dinner.