Welcome to Cooking For One Recipes! This series is designed for those of us who don’t need recipes for big meals- just enough for one person to eat without a ton of leftovers. Or, if you are feeding a large family, you can certainly alter the recipes to whatever amount of people you need!
For those of you who use Pinterest I have created a board that will have all the recipes from this series. Be sure to follow it!
This quick meal is Spinach and Ricotta-Stuffed Shells. It contains all the good stuff (pasta and cheese and sauce- oh my)!
It’s extremely affordable and there are not many dishes afterwards to clean – which is always nice. More time for relaxing.
Ingredients
10 jumbo pasta shells (in my town I always find these at Harris Teeter)
1 24-ounce jar marinara sauce (a little more sauce than you may need)
15-ounce container ricotta
1 cup baby spinach, chopped
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
kosher salt and black pepper
1/4 cup grated mozzarella
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Set an oven rack to the highest position and heat oven to 400° F.
Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain. Set aside to cool.
Spread the marinara sauce in the bottom of a large broiler proof baking dish.
In a bowl, combine the ricotta, spinach, Parmesan and ¼ teaspoon salt & pepper. (I like spinach so I used more than the recipe calls for).
Spoon the mixture into the shells and place them on top of the sauce.
Sprinkle the shells with the mozzarella and bake until heated through, approx. 10-12 minutes.
Increase heat to broil. Broil the shells until cheese begins to brown, 2 to 5 minutes. If you leave in too long the edges will start to burn, so watch them!
I served with the leftover bunch of spinach, stems removed and sautéed on the stove for a few minutes in olive oil and garlic.
Buon appetito!
This is altered from a recipe from Real Simple.
- 10 jumbo pasta shells (in my town I always find these at Harris Teeter)
- 1 24-ounce jar marinara sauce (a little more sauce than you may need)
- 15-ounce container ricotta
- 1 cup baby spinach, chopped
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan
- kosher salt and black pepper
- ¼ cup grated mozzarella
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Set an oven rack to the highest position and heat oven to 400° F.
- Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain. Set aside to cool.
- Spread the marinara sauce in the bottom of a large broiler proof baking dish.
- In a bowl, combine the ricotta, spinach, Parmesan and ¼ teaspoon salt & pepper. (I like spinach so I used more than the recipe calls for).
- Spoon the mixture into the shells and place them on top of the sauce.
- Sprinkle the shells with the mozzarella and bake until heated through, approx. 10-12 minutes.
- Increase heat to broil. Broil the shells until cheese begins to brown, 2 to 5 minutes. If you leave in too long the edges will start to burn, so watch them!
