Stuffed Pasta Shells
Stuffed jumbo pasta shells, with Italian sausage, garlic and onion, a tomato cream sauce, and mozzarella cheese, baked until golden and bubbly.
Servings: 6 servings
Ingredients
- 12 oz jumbo pasta shells cooked 2 minutes short of al dente
- 1 lb ground italian sausage
- 1 sweet onion minced
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 2 cups pureed tomatoes about 3 medium, fresh or frozen (canned is not recommended, as they lack sweetness)
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 4 oz mozzarella cheese divided into 1 inch hunks
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Boil pasta two minutes short of al dente, in salted water, drain and set aside.
- Fry sausage, onion and garlic until sausage is brown and crispy and onion is translucent.
- Pour over pureed tomato, heavy cream. Reduce heat to medium and simmer 5 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat.
- Using a slotted spoon, stuff shells to full, leaving behind as much sauce as the slotted spoon allows.
- Nestle the shells, open side up, in a single layer into a baking dish until there is no more room. (If your baking dish is not non-stick, smear some sauce on the bottom to "grease" it so that the shells don't stick while baking.)
- Spoon about three quarters worth of the remaining sauce evenly over the shells.
- Place 1 inch hunks of mozzarella cheese sporadically over the top.
- Spoon remaining sauce over the top, into little pools around and on the cheese.
- Bake at 450 degrees until golden and bubbly, about 7-10 minutes.