Stuffed Shells Two Ways

Saturday was family dinner night and to stick with my cookbook mission, I made a recipe inspired by, guess who, Ray Ray! The menu was stuffed shells two ways. Truly, I just wanted to do a butternut squash sauce, but I figured I could please the crowed with an easy italian sausage marinara sauce, too. Though these took for-ev-er to make for a group of ten, they were super delicious. It's like a neater lasagna. Which makes me think this butternut squash sauce would make a ridiculously good lasagna... Hmmm...

Thanks for inspiration Ray Ray! I also took a cue from Gourmet for the butternut squash sauce. But I changed that up, too. I'm not one for following instructions.

There are three components to this - the shells, the sausage marinara, and the butternut squash sauce.

One: The Shells


Ingredients

• One box of shells
• 2 cups fat free ricotta
• 2/3 c. shredded parmesan
• 1/3 c. grated romano
• 1 egg
• 1/2 bag frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess liquid
• 1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg to taste
• 1 tbsp dried parsley flakes
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper

Instructions

• In a large mixing bowl, combine all the other ingredients.
• Set in the fridge for about one hour before you start stuffing shells so that the spices have some time to soak in to the cheese
• Cook shells according to box instructions -  you want them just short of al dente since you will be finishing them in the oven. Nobody likes mushy pasta.
• When the pasta is done cooking, drain and dump on to a baking sheet to cool.
• Once they are cool enough to handle, stuff each shell with 2 tbsp of ricotta mixture
• Arrange in a 9x13 baking dish and wait patiently for sauce
• Pour sauce over shells - be generous - and make sure to get the edges so pasta doesn't dry out
• Bake uncovered at 375 for 30 minutes or until bubbly

nutmeg looks like brains!

Sausage Marinara

Ingredients

• One package of your favorite italian sausage - I like hot turkey, but sweet or any other meat tastes great too
• Two 28 oz. cans marinara sauce from trader joes. No corner cutting, people. :)
• 1 tbsp italian seasoning
• 1 c. red wine - 3/4 c for drinking while cooking, 1/4 c. for actual cooking

Instructions

•  In a large, deep frying pan, brown sausage 
• Dump in marinara sauce, reduce heat to simmer
• Add in italian seasoning and red wine
• Simmer and stir occasionally for 10 minutes
• Great on pasta, lasagna, stuffed shells, with italian sandwiches, over eggs, over garlic bread, etc.

 I was too busy stuffing shells to take pics, but picture yumminess in your head.

Butternut Squash Sage Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 lb butternut squash, roughly chopped and finely diced by food processor
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2 tbsp EVOO
• 1 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp fresh chopped sage
• 1 tbsp fresh chopped italian parsley
• 1 cup grated parmesan
• pepper to taste

Instructions

• Heat oil over medium high heat
• Saute onions until soft and starting to get brown
• Dump in squash, and water, cover and reduce heat to medium
• Cook for 10-15 minutes, or until squash is fully cooked
• Either using a blender or batches in a food processor, puree 3/4 of the squash onion mixture. If you don't want texture, puree it all. I like texture.
• Reduce heat to low, stir in herbs, parm, and pepper to taste
• SOOOOOOO good.

fuzzy.

 I am going to go eat another round of these shells for leftovers now :)