How to Make Stuffed Shells

Hey , I'm John Cannell .

And today on preppy kitchen , we're making classic delicious stuffed shells .

So let's get started .

First off , set that oven to 3 75 .

And we're gonna bring three quarts of water to a boil in a big pot .

These shells are giant and you want the giant jumbo shells for this recipe .

So you needed a lot of space and I will say as always , you should salt your water very well .

It's infusing the pasta with so much flavor and it also changes the boiling temperature of the water .

So now I'm gonna add my shells in .

We only need 24 for this recipe , but you wanna be better safe than sorry because some of them will , will tear and you know , make some more .

We're gonna let this boil uncovered for maybe 10 minutes or so .

They should be on the side of done because it'll continue baking in the oven right now .

I have a little bit of prep work to do .

So I'm gonna have some fresh parsley and I'm gonna give it a chop .

I want about a quarter of a cup , but you can always add more and this recipe is so forgiving .

So feel free to improvise and add more of your favorite ingredients .

Personally , I love parsley .

So if I read a quarter of a cup , that means half a cup stuffed shells is like an Italian American classic that so many of us like love having .

But I have to tell you if you make them at home , there's almost no way they can't be amazing .

Stuffed shells are a symphony of cheeses in flavor cradled in these beautiful jumbo shells bathed in an amazing marinara sauce .

So today we're gonna make this as like an easy weeknight meal .

I'm using a wonderful marinara sauce that I love .

If you wanna go all out , you can make the marinara from scratch .

You could make your pasta from scratch and form it into jumbo shells .

I don't even know how you do that .

I only know how to make fresh pasta if you know how to do it .

You let me know in the comments .

This parsley is nicely chopped .

My other little bit of prep work is to grate some Parmesan .

I want about three quarters of a cup or 90 g .

You could definitely use pre grated parmesan if you prefer .

Oh my gosh , that Parmesan smells so nice , beautiful clouds .

My prep work is complete .

Let's make our filling .

By the time we're done , the shells will be just about ready into a large bowl .

I'm adding 15 ounces or 425 g of fresh delicious ricotta cheese .

I've said it before and I'll say it again .

Ricotta does not get its dew .

It is so mild creamy and just an amazing vehicle for flavor .

A scale is done .

Now , I'm adding in about two cups of mozzarella .

One cup is reserved for later .

You can add more than a cup later .

By the way , I'm adding in about a half a cup of my Parmesan two tablespoons of my chopped parsley .

I'm also adding in two teaspoons of Italian seasoning , half a teaspoon of salt and about a quarter teaspoon of freshly cracked black pepper .

There's so many optional things you could add to this .

It could be onion powder , garlic powder or any herbs that you love today .

I'm gonna add in a little bit of lemon zest just to brighten it up a bit .

I'm also adding in one egg to help hold it together .

Give it a good mix once your fillings together , grab a nine by 13 casserole dish and we're gonna add two cups of a nice marinara into the bottom .

So just pop that in there .

You really don't have to be exact with this , just gonna smooth this out into a nice even layer .

This is the bed of deliciousness that our shells will be cooking in stuffed shells is of course Italian specifically originating in Sicily and the shell shape is supposed to look like a conch .

I'm not gonna try and say it because my Italian accent is horrible .

Our shells are so right now , we need to drain them out because you do not want them to overcook right into a colander .

Our shells are done and drained and you could run these under cold water if you're in a hurry .

I just let them sit for like five seconds .

They're not so hot anymore .

Fill them up with your cheese mixture .

I think that's nice .

You want a generously stuffed shell and we're gonna place this right into our bed of Marinara and repeat these torn ones .

I don't know .

Yeah , I love to use the ones that are nice intact .

They can really hold the cheese .

Well , and when I made this , I used Parmesan like you saw , but you could use Pecorino Romano or any like nice hard nutty cheese that you enjoy .

A lot of the times when you see these photographs , they either show it to you at this stage where they're just sitting here before baking or like very , very lightly dressed with sauce and cheese on top .

And that's just not realistic .

In reality , you want this like in a bath of cheese and sauce .

Like I said earlier , you could have run this pasta under cold water .

The nice thing is that it helps your hands not get burnt .

But if you do that , I really think that the pasta is less likely to absorb a lot of the delicious flavors that we have here , let it cool down a bit and then stuff them up .

The last two shells go right in .

I had just enough filling .

Look how beautiful that is .

Enjoy it now , because we're about to cover it up with delicious things that'll obscure your sights .

By the way , if you wanna make way heat in advance , you can assemble this in an aluminum baking dish and then freeze it right now .

So it's cover it really well with plastic and foil goes right to the freezer and then you can add the remaining marinara and cheese on top and bake from frozen with some extra time .

If you're freezing this though , don't use a ceramic container because one , it'll be in the freezer for so long you need to use it and two thermal shock could cause it to crack when it goes into the oven from frozen .

I'm gonna spoon over about a cup of marinara and I wanna just dazzle the shells with some more sauce on top of this .

I'm adding a Sprinkle of the remaining cup of mozzarella about a quarter cup of that reserved Parmesan .

It's snowing cheese and I love it loosely covered with foil .

This goes into the oven at 3 75 for 20 minutes , then 15 minutes uncovered , let them cool down just a bit .

And then once out of the oven Sprinkle the reserved parsley on and they're ready to enjoy .

That is delicious .

The ricotta and all the other cheeses make it just so comforting but still light .

It has a kiss of herbs and all the acid from that marinara cradled in beautiful pasta shells .

I hope you get a chance to make this recipe .

And if you like this video , check out my easy dinner playlist .