Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta

This is my first take on stuffed jumbo pasta shells, but I will must say it will not not be last: there are so many stuffings these may work nicely with.

In this recipe pasta is stuffed with five cheeses (ricotta, parmesan, provolone, mozzarella and romano), fresh parsley and egg mix.

For sauce I tried something new too: that is canned crushed tomatoes, usually I avoid using canned vegetables, but these worked well for sauce and saved me quite some time too.

Ingredients:

  • 30-35 jumbo pasta shells

  • Stuffing
    20oz of ricotta cheese
  • 2 cups of italian blend shredded cheese (romano, provolone, mozzarella, parmesan)
  • 2 eggs
  • Bunch of fresh parsley
  • Zest of one lemon
  • Salt to taste

  • Sauce
    28oz can of crushed tomatoes
  • 1 teaspoon of crushed red chili pepper flakes
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • 2-3 tablespoon of olive oil
  • Salt to taste

How to prepare, step-by-step:

  1. Prepare ingredients:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 1
  2. Wash lemon thoroughly (many stores put something on top of their fruits and vegetables to prevent them from spoiling, so you want to remove all of them). Grate zest of all of lemon, set zest aside, you will not need the lemon itself:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 2
  3. Peel and chop garlic, set it aside:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 3
  4. Bring a pot of water to boil, salt to taste, add jumbo pasta shells in and cook according to package instructions until “al dente”:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 4
  5. While pasta is cooking, let’s prepare sauce. For that warm up saucepan with 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil, don’t over heat. Add chopped garlic:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 5
  6. And red chili pepper flakes:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 6
  7. Cook until fragrant (you don’t want garlics to brown) then add crushed tomatoes, bring to light simmer and cook for a minute or two, add salt to taste (if needed), then turn heat off, sauce is ready:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 7
  8. When pasta is “al dente”, drain liquid from it, rinse pasta with cold water and set it aside to cool down:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 8
  9. Now it is time to prepare stuffing. Move ricotta cheese to a mixing bowl:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 9
  10. Add 3/4 of lemon zest, mix:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 10
  11. Beat eggs lightly and mix them with ricotta:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 11
  12. Add chopped parsley, mix:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 12
  13. And shredded cheeses:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 13
  14. Add salt to taste and mix everything well:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 14
  15. Warm oven up to 350F. Sprinkle remaining of lemon zest on bottom of a baking pan:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 15
  16. Spread 1/3 of all sauce on the bottom of baking pan, event it out:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 16
  17. Working in batches, stuff each jumbo pasta shell with prepared stuffing:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 17
  18. And arrange them in the baking pan:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 18
  19. Pour remaining sauce on top, even sauce layer out:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 19
  20. Cover baking pan with a layer of foil and put to warmed up oven (350F). Bake for 30 mins covered, then remove foil and bake for 15 mins more:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe: Step 20
  21. Remove pan from the oven and serve:
    Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta Recipe
Enjoy!

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