We had our belated birthday dinner for Rachael this evening. Lots of fun at Sarah and Gregorio’s new apartment in Sierra Madre. I made homemade stuffed shells and peach pie, both Rachael’s favorites. I have included the stuffed shell recipe before, but it’s so good that I’m going to post it again. This is truly a recipe you can always count on and is pretty enough to serve for the nicest and most special of dinners. Here is what I did:
First, I made a marinara sauce with sautéed onions and garlic, spices, canned tomatoes, tomato sauce and red wine. Delicious.
Then I made the filling: Into a big bowl I poured out a 32 ounce container of ricotta cheese, added lots of grated mozzarella cheese, a generous amount of Parmesan cheese, and enough chopped parsley to make it colorful.
At this point, a big pan of water on the stove was coming to a boil. I added two boxes of pasta shells, waited 9 minutes, then drained them.
I stuffed the pasta shells, placed them in a big baking dish over a bit of the marinara sauce, and repeated the process until all the shells and the filling were gone. Then I covered all the shells with marinara sauce, followed by both mozzarella and parmesan cheese, then popped it into a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.
This recipe is hard to beat. Tonight we ate a pan and a half of the shells which go perfectly with a great salad. We also had French bread. Delicious.
Rachael’s birthday was a success in no small part to the stuffed shells. Tried and true.
I’ll be checking back in tomorrow. Hope you’re looking forward to a good weekend.
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