This is the third time i've made this and I love it. I discovered if I make the filling first and put it in the fridge for a while while preping my other items, it becomes firmer and SO much easier and neater to stuff the shells.
My family loves this recipe! My 3 year old eats shell after shell!! We're not a mushroom family, so I leave those out. I scoop the filling into a big ziploc bag, close the top up, make a small cut in one of the bottom corners and squeeze into the shells - no mess! I also divide this recipe into two 9x13 pans. We eat one and the other goes into the freezer for later. Freezes really well!
Restaurant quality! Believe it or not, I was able to reduce the fat, and it still came out delicious. I bought lowfat ricotta cheese, used only 3/4 cup mozzarella + 1/2 cup parmesan in the filling (added 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp pepper, and would do that again), and left off the cheese in the sauce, just sprinkling a bit of parmesan after baking so it looked pretty. It made two 13x9x2 pans, and I wish I had used 2 jars of sauce instead of 1. The sauce dried out after baking, so next time, I will cover with aluminum foil first, and remove it the last 10 minutes or so. Thanks so much for the recipe - will definitely be making it again!
I will give these three stars because the recipe is a good place to start. Prepared as stated in the recipe, this is enough for two trays of shells. This recipe needed more than a little tweaking though. I made the following changes. 1 tsp. of salt instead of two. 4 oz. of parmesan total (two in the filling and two in the sauce). I substituted Italian Seasoning for the parsley. I added about a half tsp. of garlic powder to the filling too. I skipped the mushrooms and added Italian sausage to the sauce instead. You will need two jars of sauce PER TRAY of shells or they will be dry. Prepared with the changes specified, my fiancé said he could “eat himself into the hospital he’d eat so many of these shells if he could.” Sounds like a good review to me!
This recipe was more like your real italian stuffed shells that you buy in the italian deli than any of the others, (and my family has been in the business for years)so thumbs up for that! There was a few things I changed and they were perfect! I did not add eggs and I only put 1/2 tsp salt. I added alittle more ricotta to taste to get it not as much so cheesy as I wanted it more creamy. That is the secret to any stuffed shell recipe! I used a regular homemade italian tomato sauce. I did not use mushrooms! And I didnt alter this dish to look like a deep dish piiza as it states. It is a time consuming recipe , but if you like it homemade it is worth the effort!
Hubby isn't fond of "meatless" dinners, so I browned about 1/2 lb of ground beef and added it to the pasta sauce before pouring it over the shells. I also left out the mushrooms and only used about 1/2 tsp of salt. We really enjoyed this very filling dinner!
CUT THE SALT IN HALF!!! The recipe is amazing, but it's way too salty. Silly me, I forgot to read the reviews before making mine and it was way too salty. It is however an excellent recipe. I used Classico italian sausage spaghetti sauce and added mushrooms. It was amazing. I'd also definitely double the sauce. I halved my recipe and I almost needed more than one jar. I can't imagine one jar being enough for the whole recipe. Flavor is EXCELLENT!!!
the filling for these shells is absolutely fabulous. i didn't change much, except i used fresh parsley and added some fresh basil. i will definitely be using this filling the next time i make my vegetarian lasagna. thanks much for the recipe!
This recipe was great. My husband has tried a few different recipes and they were all horrible. This one was pretty easy to make. Just takes a little bit of prep. time. I read some of the other reviews before I tried it and decided that people thought that there might be too much salt so I cut the salt in half. I think that was borderline too salty still si I reccommend that the salt be 1 tsp. instead of 4 tsp. Thanks for a great recipe! The family loved it!
