stuffed shell recipe (OLD)

check my other blog for the improved version of this recipe!







ingredients:
- 2 eggs, whisked
- box of jumbo macaroni shells
- prego or ragu or whatever other brand of spaghetti sauce. i'd get the largest container to be safe, but you may or may not use all of it. you can always refrigerate leftovers
- 2/3 of a 16 oz container of cottage cheese. large and small curd both work fine
- 4 oz mozzarella cheese
- about 6 tablespoons of shredded parmesan cheese, not the powdered stuff
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon parsley

directions:
put 15 of the shells into a salted pot of water. bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium high. leave simmering for 13-14 minutes. stir occasionally, but be very gentle when you do, or else the shells will tear and be difficult or impossible to stuff. my favorite method is using a larger pot than needed with more water than needed, so i can use my stirring spoon to make a current in the water that will move the shells around without me having to touch them.

preheat your oven to 350 conventional.

meanwhile, crack the egg into a medium sized bowl. whisk it or just stir it with a spoon briefly until it's an even texture. dump in the three cheeses, stir until evenly coated with egg. take the parsley into your palm and crush it with your hands over the bowl, then dump it in. do the same with the oregano. stir those in as well.


get an 8x8 or 9x9 or whatever size glass baking dish. pour in some of the spaghetti sauce, then pick up the dish and shake it back and forth to spread it around until the bottom is evenly coated with the sauce. a large amount of sauce isn't necessary - just enough to coat the bottom is fine.

once your shells are finished, drain them, and then fill your pot back up partially with cold water. place the shells into the cold water. take each shell one by one and fill it with the stuffing, then place it into the baking dish. the dish should be able to hold 12 total shells - the extra 3 you made were insurance in case any of them tore, which often happens to me even when i'm being gentle. there are several methods you can use to fill the shells - you can put the stuffing in a plastic bag and cut a tip off the corner, or just scoop up the filling with a spoon and place it in the shell. the spoon method is easier for me, but only after making this recipe dozens of times (i learned how to hold the shell in such a way that the filling goes in really easily), but the plastic bag with the cut tip is probably the most newbie-friendly.

once all of your shells are stuffed and placed in the dish, cover them all with spaghetti sauce. again, just enough to cover them is sufficient, doesn't have to be any specific amount.

cover the dish with aluminum foil, then bake for 20 minutes. after that, remove the foil (save it in case there are leftovers - you can just cover the dish back up and stick it in the fridge. these reheat really well too) and bake for another 20 minutes. and voila, the best stuffed shells you'll ever have!