Community Pick
Stuffed Shells (with Spinach and Cheese)
"A really unique stuffed shells recipe. I usually make this for company. The original recipe included one pound of bulk Italian sausage in the stuffing, which I have omitted for my own personal tastes. I'm getting hungry just typing this recipe and remembering how good it is!"
- Ready In:
- 1hr 15mins
- Ingredients:
- 21
- Serves:
-
10
ingredients
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, well drained
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided (8 oz)
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (8 oz)
- 1 cup cottage cheese
- 1⁄4 grated parmesan cheese
- 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
- 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 dash cinnamon (optional)
- 20 large shell noodles, cooked and drained
-
SAUCE
- 1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1 tablespoon dried onion flakes
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons dried basil
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons parsley flakes
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
- 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper
directions
- In a skillet, cook onion until tender.
- Transfer to a large bowl.
- Stir in the spinach, cream cheese, and egg.
- Add 1 cup mozzarella, cheddar, cottage cheese, parmesan, salt, pepper, and cinnamon if desired; mix well.
- Stuff shells and arrange in a greased 13x9x2 baking dish.
- Combine sauce ingredients; mix well.
- Pour over shells.
- Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
- Uncover; sprinkle with remaining mozzarella.
- Return to oven for 5 minutes or until cheese melts.
Questions & Replies
-
Would a white sauce taste good instead? What kind of white sauce?
Reviews
-
Loved it!!! Easy way to stuff shells..put all ingredients in ziplock bag and cut the end...no mess!! -
Very good! Will make again. I did use a 15oz container of ricotta in place of the cream cheese & cottage cheese. I also used fresh spinach, i just chopped it up and threw it in at the end of cooking the onion to cook out some of the moisture. -
Delicious! I couldn't find whole wheat jumbo shells, so I rolled the filling up in lasagna rolls, and it was amazing! The cream cheese took it to another level! I will definitely be making these again. -
A big thumbs up from three generations. Loved the idea of using the ziplock bag to fill the shells. I did substitute cream cheese for the cottage cheese. Not a tweak. Just personal preference. It makes it very creamy.
-
Yumm! I made a mistake and didn't have spinach like I thought i did, so I substituted a bag of mixed mushrooms. It was wonderful (even with the change) - very rich and the filling is so creamy! Will definitely make as directed again soon!!
see 18 more reviews
Tweaks
-
Followed the directions exactly (omitted cinnamon) and it was really good. However, next time I think I will make a few changes. I would definetly use ricotta cheese instead of the cream cheese. It was a little bit too sweet for our taste. Also, I think I will half the cheese mixture next time--we ended up throwing a good portion of it away unused. But overall it is a great recipe! Thanks Laura70! -
Fantastic recipe. The entire family loved it! Made this w/Ricotta Cheese instead of Cottage Cheese and omitted the cinnamon - that's about all I changed. Made about 30 shells and they just barely fit in a 13 x 9 pan. I will be adding this to our favorites! Thanks. -
These are just wonderful!! I made them for dinner and my husband, who has never had them before, ate almost half the pan. I will be making these many more times you can be sure. The only thing I did differently was replace the cottage cheese with Ricotta cheese because I don't like the taste of cottage cheese in Italian foods and if you are going to go to all the trouble of making something special, why not go whole hog !! I may try using all low fat cheeses next time to see how it turns out. I did not use sausage but might try it at some point although it is really difficult to get Italian sausage in England. Thanks for a wonderful recipe.
