Happy November 1st friends! We hope everyone had a great Halloween. I am so excited right now because November is my favorite month, and not because it’s my Birthday month. Who am I kidding, I love that it’s my Birthday month, but even better then my Birthday is the countdown to Thanksgiving officially starts now. Not saying that everything for the next month is going to be Thanksgiving themed, but we officially can start planning our Thanksgiving day menu. These Chicken Ricotta Stuffed Shells will obviously not be on the thanksgiving day menu, but it’s too good not to share.
This recipe is going to be a new addition to your weekly meal plan…it’s that good. I might be biased, but i’m literally drooling over these pictures right now. It is my lunch time after all. I’ve totally been craving pasta lately, and there are three recipes in particular I’ve been dying to have, so I thought i’d share those with you.
Our One Pot Bruschetta Chicken Pasta is killer and super easy to make. Than we have my mom’s Oriental Chicken Pasta Salad that is so unique in the best way possible. Lastly i’ve been dreaming of this Mushroom Turkey Walnut Bolognese recipe we made awhile back. You know it’s a good recipe when you crave it a year later. Keep these and the stuffed shells in mind if you’re in pasta mode like me.
Now i’d like to discuss a few things we learned when making these stuffed shells. An important step is to not cook the shells all the way through. 1 minute less the package direction is a good place to start, because keep in mind they will continue to cook in the oven. Another step to keep in mind is while you let the shells cool, be sure to spread them out so they are not touching and don’t stick together. They will cool a bit faster this way anyways. And since this is technically a three part recipe, make your shells first so they have time to cool, then make your quick tomato sauce, and lastly prepare your filling.
That’s all I can really say to help make this process a bit easier, however it’s worth it in the end. It’s truly a recipe to remember. Of course it came from the cookbook “Joy of Cooking,” which we ended up changing a bit and updating the instructions so they are easier to follow.
If you’re just tuning into our blog, we are slowly cooking through the book adding our own spin on each recipe. For more information visit our Pigs in Potatoes blog post, and it has all the details on this journey we are taking. If anything check out that recipe because it’s delicious! For those that would like to follow along with us as we work our way through this encylopedia of a cookbook, you can find the quick tomato sauce recipe on page 352, and the pasta filling is on page 218-219 under pasta filling #3. And you can grab a copy of this book HERE if you don’t have one already.
That concludes are post for today, and we hope you have enjoyed your time with us. Please come back soon for more homestyle cooked recipes, and Happy Cooking as always!
Quote of the Day: “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” – Ansel Adams
| Passive Time | 1 hour |
| Servings |
servings
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- 10 oz box of pasta, cooked
- 1 pint fresh cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1/2 tsp coconut sugar
- 1 tbs butter
- 1/2 tsp italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbs finely grated onion
- 3 oz tomato paste
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 2 tbs butter
- 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
- 1/4 cup finely chopped mushrooms
- 1 cup fresh spinach
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp italian seasoning
- 3/4 cups ricotta cheese
- 2 tbs heavy cream
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Ingredients
For Pasta Shells:
For Quick Tomato Sauce:
For the Filling:
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- Cook 1 minute less than package instructions, set aside to cool.
- Add butter in a large sauce pan, and cook fresh cherry tomatoes till tender about 10 minutes.
- Add ½ cup stock to a blender and cooked cherry tomatoes. Blend until smooth. Once blended place back in sauce pan.
- Add to saucepan tomato paste, salt, sugar, italian seasoning, and finely grated onion. Bring to a boil, turn down temperature and simmer for 15 min. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Melt 1 tbs butter, and cook ground chicken cook about 4-5 minutes or until browned and set aside in a large bowl.
- Add remaining tbs of butter, chopped onion, and chopped mushrooms to sauce pan where you cooked the chicken, and cook about 5 minutes.
- Add cooked vegetable, raw spinach, nutmeg, italian seasoning, and salt and pepper to bowl with ground chicken. Place in fridge for 5 min or until cooled off (or somewhat cooled).
- After mixture is cooled, add ricotta cheese and cream. Mix Thoroughly.
- In a pyrex dish (we used a 16 X 9) add all the tomato sauce to bottom of dish.
- Now you're going to take your cooled shells, and fill with about 1-2 tbs of ricotta filling.
- Place each shell on top of the tomato sauce, and top with parmesan cheese.
- Bake for 25 minutes, and enjoy.
Adapted From: "Joy of Cooking," Cookbook.
Quick tomato sauce on page 352
Chicken Ricotta Filling on pages 218-219 under pasta filling #3
This looks like a perfect cold-weather dinner. I love the addition of earthy mushrooms!