Ok, so I am a huge
lasagna fan, but my wife really wanted something different. While we
were shopping at our local Walmart tooling down the pasta isle, she
stopped and asked if I could make some stuffed manicotti. As she
pulled the box off the shelf she must have seen the look on my face
as she asked me “what's the matter?” Nothing I replied, I like
stuffed manicotti, but it is kind of a pain in the butt as almost
half your shells seem to tear or rip apart when attempting to stuff
them.
Looking for a
compromise, I saw a bag of jumbo shells sitting next to the
manicotti, and asked what about stuffed shells? Same filling I said,
just different type of pasta and quite a bit easier to stuff than
manicotti. So a deal was struck, and off we went to gather the one
item we needed other than the shells that we did not have at home in
the fridge or in the pantry, ricotta cheese.
The Recipe
This is the same
filling that I use to stuff manicotti. In fact, the cheese filling is
very similar to what you would use when making a lasagna. Did I
mention I like lasagna? Anyway, this is a large recipe as I stuffed
all of the shells and made three small foil pans each with eight
stuffed shells each that went into the freezer for future meals. So
with this recipe, we fed four people from the original baking dish,
and made enough for the wife and I to have three additional meals
(about 40 stuffed shells total). If you do not want to make all of
the shells at one time, simply cut the recipe in half. At 3 to 4
stuffed shells per person, this recipe yields about 10 – 12
portions or servings. You could easily go vegetarian with this
filling by omitting the ground beef reducing the overall cost of the
recipe by a small amount. Freshly julienned spinach added to the
cheese mixture is also a nice addition, but I did not have any on
hand at this time.
1 box jumbo shells
2 (29oz cans)
spaghetti sauce
32oz ricotta cheese
8oz ground beef,
cooked and rinsed
3 cups shredded
mozzarella cheese
½ cup shredded
parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon Italian
seasoning
¼ teaspoon black
pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
Brown ground beef in
a skillet and then rinse with warm water in a strainer or colander to
remove any leftover grease, then set aside to drain. Rinsing and
draining cooked ground beef significantly reduces the fat content of
the meat. See my article 'Can Cheap Ground Beef Be Healthy? You Bet!'
on our blog for further nutritional information.
Cook your pasta per
the directions on the box, then rinse the pasta in cool water to stop
the cooking process. Fill your saucepan with cool water and allow the
pasta to sit in the water while you prepare the filling.
Combine the ricotta,
mozzarella, parmesan, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and drained
ground beef in a large bowel and mix completely. In order to stuff
the shells you will need a large pastry bag, or a I gallon zip lock
bag which you can load the mixture in cut off one corner to use as a
pastry bag to stuff the shells.
Chef's Note: The
ricotta filling is actually firm enough that you could pinch off a
small amount and shape it into small balls or oblong shapes and stuff
the pasta shells with, but it is far easier to use a pastry or zip
lock bag to fill them.
Once you have your
shells stuffed with the cheese mixture, take a small amount of the
spaghetti sauce and make a thin layer in the bottom your baking dish,
arrange the shells in the baking dish and then pour some of the sauce
over the shells. I like to toss some additional mozzarella cheese on
top of the shells, sprinkle on some Italian seasoning, place a lid on
the dish and bake the shells in the oven for 350 degrees for about an
hour or until the sauce and cheese are bubbling.
The Cost
Stuffed shells is
one of those few meals that you cannot really find a price comparison
for at your local Italian restaurant. In fact, I do not think I have
ever seen stuffed shells at the any of the Italian restaurant chains.
Probably the closet you would come to this dish is lasagna. Although
I have never been, the menu for the local Olive Garden in Tyler, TX
lists the dinner entree 'Lasagna Classico' for $13.79 per order. So
cheaper than you can eat one meal of lasagna at Olive garden you can
make and serve 8 to 10 people stuffed shells at home.
Great Value Jumbo
shells 12oz box $1.88 at Walmart
Hunt's meat flavored
spaghetti sauce 29oz can $0.98 ($1.96) at Walmart
Great Value Ricotta
cheese 32oz container $3.48 at Walmart
Ground beef 8oz,
cooked and rinsed $1.49 ($2.98lb on sale) at Walmart
American Heritage
Mozzarella Cheese 32oz ($6.84) 3 cups mozzarella cheese $2.00
Kraft Parmesan
cheese 6oz ($4.24) ½ cup $1.50
Spice and Seasonings
(Italian seasoning, black pepper, salt) $0.03
Total cost for 40
stuffed shells $12.34 ($0.31 per shell) or $1.24 per serving for 10
servings (4 shells per person), $0.93 per serving for 12 servings (3
shells per serving). My local Walmart carries two stuffed shell
products and one stuffed manicotti.
Bertolli 'Rustico
Bakes' 25oz package of stuffed shells ( 7 to 8 per package) is $5.97
($0.74 per shell)
Celetano' brand
12.5oz package of stuffed shells (4 shells per package) is $3.47
($0.87 per shell)
Home made Stuffed
shells (40 total) is $12.34 ($0.31 per shell)
Stouffer's 29.5oz
package of cheese stuffed manicotti (5 per package) is $7.95 ($1.59
per manicotti which is equivalent to about 2 stuffed shells).
Anyway you look at
it you can make better quality stuffed shells for 59 – 65% cheaper
than you can buy them premade at the supermarket. Not to mention the
fact that you can feed 8 to 10 people homemade stuffed shells for the
price of ONE lasagna dinner at the Olive Garden.
Now to be fair, you
could buy a 90oz Great Value Lasagna that serves 12 people for $10.97
which is cheaper than making your own stuffed shells. My
mother-in-law keeps several of these in her freezer for when the
family gets together. For the price they aren't bad, but they will
never be as good as home made. In fact, you will never get the
quality and amount of filling that you find in these shells in a
frozen stuffed shell, manicotti or frozen lasagna product.
Conclusion
Stuffed shells and
manitcotti are great, I like them both and this recipe allows us to
make extra meals that we can freeze and simply throw them in the oven
and bake frozen at a moments notice. We use old stale bread and make
buttered garlic toast that we then wrap them in plastic and place in
the freezer for when we make spaghetti or any Italian American meal
in which garlic bread is a nice addition. And yes, when we served
this, we used some of our prepared garlic bread and threw in a fresh
garden salad to round out the meal.
You
could easily go vegetarian with this filling by omitting the ground
beef. Freshly julienned spinach added to the cheese mixture is also a
nice addition, but I did not have any on hand at this time. If you
want to make your own marinara or spaghetti sauce to use in thi
recipe then check out my article 'One Sauce To Rule Them All' on our
blog. As always, if you
have enjoyed this article, please share it with your friends and
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