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Baked Cheese and Spinach Stuffed Pasta Shells

Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • 1 250 g package of jumbo pasta shells
  • 2 500 g tubs of 2% cottage cheese
  • 1 140 g package goat's cheese softened
  • 1 egg
  • 500 g frozen spinach thawed then excess moisture squeezed out
  • pinch of nutmeg
  • pinch of salt and pepper
  • 1/4 grated Parmesan cheeese
  • 350 g shredded mozzarella or Italian mix cheese
  • 850 ml - roughly 1 1/2 jars spicy roasted garlic tomato sauce (or whatever kind you like)

Instructions
 

  • Start boiling lots water in a large pot. While that starts to boil, empty the two tubs of cottage cheese into the food processor and puree until smooth. Then blend in the egg and goat's cheese.
  • For the spinach, thaw it in the microwave. Once it isn't frozen any more, dump the package into a colander and grab large handfuls and start squeezing it like it owes you money. Squeeze as much water out of it as you can. If you don't have strong hands, rope someone in to help you or go at in with small breaks to rest your hands. I weighed the spinach after I was done and it reduced down to 180 g without the excess water.
  • Put the squeezed spinach in the food processor with the Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Pulse the machine to combine it with the cottage cheese mixture. If you have big pieces of spinach pulse it a few extra times so that you get little pieces rather than long stringy bits.
  • For the pasta, cook according to package instructions. The shells I bought took about 13 minutes. I checked with one that had kind of fallen apart in the water. When the pasta is done drain it in a large colander and rinse with cold water. I
  • never
  • rinse regular pasta but if I need to assemble something and handle it then it needs to be rinsed or it will stick together not to mention it will be really friggin' hot.
  • Pour the contents of one jar of tomato sauce into a 9"x12" baking dish and a little less than half of the other jar into a small 5"x7" freezer and oven safe dish. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
  • Start filling the pasta shells with the cheese and spinach mixture. Hold the shell in the palm of your hand with one end in the direction of your fingers and gently cup your hand so that you open up the shell by pressing the two pointed ends slightly towards each other. Put a very large dollop of filling in the shell and place it in the baking dish. I put 5 across in the large dish and 3 in the small one. Keep going until you run out of space and filling. If you have extra filling you can top up the shells that are already in the dish.
  • Cover the top of the shells with shredded cheese. Cover the one you are going to bake with aluminum foil and bake at 400 degrees F for 35-45 minutes. At about 35 minutes, remove the foil and bake until the cheese is starting to turn a light golden brown. This will take about 10 minutes, but keep an eye on it. If you prefer to speed this up you can turn on the broiler for 2-3 minutes.