Sausage & Cheese Stuffed Shells With Tomato Mushroom Sauce
"Another family favorite. This dish may be prepared a day ahead of time."
- Ready In:
- 1hr 40mins
- Ingredients:
- 16
- Serves:
-
4
ingredients
-
Pasta stuffing
- 1⁄2 lb loose sweet Italian sausage link (or remove casings)
- 1 egg
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 6 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon chopped flat leaf parsley
- 2 1⁄2 cups tomato sauce & mushrooms or 2 1/2 cups your favorite marinara sauce
- 12 large shell pasta or 8 medium manicotti
- 4 quarts boiling water
-
Tomato Mushroom Sauce
- 6 slices bacon
- 3 tablespoons bacon drippings
- 1⁄2 lb mushroom, cleaned and sliced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 (1 lb) cans Italian tomatoes, crushed
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons dried basil
- 1⁄4 teaspoon ground black pepper
directions
-
Tomato Mushroom Sauce:
- In a frying pan or Dutch oven, cook bacon strips until crisp.
- Remove cooked bacon, and drain on paper towels.
- Reserve 3 Tablespoons bacon fat and discard the rest.
- Using the same frying pan (or Dutch oven), place 3 Tablespoons bacon drippings, mushrooms and garlic into the pan.
- Cook mixture over low heat until mushrooms are softened (be careful not to burn the garlic).
- Add tomatoes, basil and pepper.
- Cook uncovered over medium-high heat for about 15 minutes or until sauce boils and thickens.
- Crumble the bacon and stir it into the sauce, season with a bit of salt (to taste).
- While waiting for the pasta water to boil, start the sausage filling.
- When water is at a rolling boil, add the pasta and cook it according to package directions, until it is almost done.
- When pasta is cooked, drain it, rinse it with cold water, and drain it again.
- Stuff the shells with the sausage ricotta mixture.
- Pasta Stuffing: If necessary, remove casings from sausage, and crumble the meat.
- In a frying pan, cook crumbled sausage over medium to medium-high heat until its browned.
- Drain cooked sausage.
- In a bowl, beat egg into ricotta, stir in cooked sausage, 2 Tablespoons Parmesan cheese, salt and parsley.
- Stuff the cooked shells with the sausage cheese filling.
-
Bake:
- Place about half the sauce into a shallow 1 1/2-quart casserole dish or a 9-inch square baking dish.
- Arrange stuffed pasta in sauce lined pan.
- Spoon remaining sauce on top of the stuffed pasta.
- (At this point, the pasta may be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated until the next day*, or baked immediately).
- Cover pan with tin foil, and bake in a preheated 350°F for 30-45 minutes, or until bubbly and heated through.
- Remove from oven, remove foil and sprinkle remaining 4 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese on top of the baked shells.
- *NOTE:If stuffed pasta was refrigerated overnight, remove plastic wrap from the pan and cover the pan with tin foil, bake as stated above, but baking time may be 5-15 minutes longer.
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Reviews
-
Excellent recipe. I did not follow recipe exactly and combined with another recipe. I made the sauce a bit different. I sauteed the garlic, onion, added chopped green pepper, bacon, and broiled steak seasoning salt in the 3 tablespoons of bacon drippings. Then cooked the crumbled sasage and when finished added half the sausage (1 packet of 9 links) to the mushroom mixture once it was done, stirred it and then added to 2 big cans of crushed tomato, 1 small can of tomato paste, and 1 normal can of tomato sauce. I cooked the sauce for 3 hours and also added some fresh ground pepper. I stuffed the shells and manicotti as directed but added shredded mozzarella as well as the grated fresh parmigiana... I also covered the entire tray with shredded mozzarella - covered with foil and baked... then removed foil for the last 10 min of baking... it was the best dish ever... it's better than any stuffed shells I have ever had. You can put the leftovers right back in the oven the next day and it tastes even better.
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
Dee514
United States
I'm married (53 years to the same lucky guy) and have 2 kids, a daughter 47, a son 43, and 2 beautiful grand daughters (11 yrs and 14 yrs). I have always enjoyed cooking and baking, especially breads :)
