Today’s recipe is Beefy Stuffed Shells (https://cookthestory.com/beefy-stuffed-shells/) .
Here are the links to some of the items I talked about in this episode: #ad
Jumbo Shell Pasta (https://amzn.to/3CT5S7m)
Large Skillet (https://amzn.to/3KfRreR)
Large Mixing Bowl (https://amzn.to/3nmrTDk)
9″x 13″ Baking Dish (https://amzn.to/2IUrtQo)
Here’s the Recipe Of The Day (https://cookthestory.com/recipe-of-the-day/) page with all of our recipe links.
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Have a great day! -Christine xo
It’s time for recipe of the day if you have listened to this episode about the beefy stuffed shells before you will notice that it has changed and so has the recipe on cook the story and that is because it turns out that there is some inconsistency in different
Brands of jumbo pasta shells in terms of size but also in terms of cooking time specifically how well they cook in sauce after boiling so the previous recipe as it was done on this show and on my site had you par boil the pasta just until
Pliable like only like 5 or 6 minutes drain it and then fill them and then they finished baking in the sauce in the oven and that was tested with one common brand of pasta shells and worked great but then recently my grocery store didn’t have those shells and I bought a
Different brand I followed the recipe like normal and the shells did not soften in the tomato sauce at the end so I actually tested it again just to make sure that I wasn’t doing something different it really didn’t work with the other brand and so I got three different
Brands of jumbo pasta shells and I’ve come up with a method that will work for all of them and now I know that this recipe should work no matter what brand of jumbo pasta shells you’re buying the main difference is that we’re going to cook the pasta shells until al dante in
The boiling water they are a tiny bit harder to stuff and fill when they’re really soft but you know for sure that they are fully cooked and you’re not going to end up in that situation where you have like uncooked kind of pasta gummy pasta at the end of your baked
Pasta you know what I mean okay so you are going to bring a big pot of salted water to the boil and you’re going to add in 20 uncooked jumbo pasta shells that is 6 oz so about half of a 12 oz box give it a stir and let it come back
Up to a boiler again and then reduce it down to a simmer and you are cooking until it is al dante you want it almost where you would want to be eating it and you can consult the Box the brand that you have to see how long it’s going to
Be now one of the boxes did not actually have instructions it did have a recipe on it though that said to only cook them for 5 minutes that didn’t work for me at all you are going more towards like a 10minute point then you’re going to drain that pasta now that entire time
While that pot is coming up to a boil while you’re cooking the pasta you could be making your filling this filling makes me so happy it is just so tasty it is basically cooked ground beef mixed with my favorite ricotta mixture this is the ricotta mixture that I have in my
Lasagna casserole on cook the story and also in the lasagna soup and I just love it like every time I make it I know I have to make extra cuz I’m going to eat like three or four teaspoons of it just while I’m cooking cuz it is so tasty
Garlicky salty really really good you’re going to start by cooking the ground beef for this filling though and so you’re going to heat a mediumsized skillet over medium heat and add a chopped onion and cook stirring occasionally just until soft and then you’re adding in your ground beef one
Pound of lean ground beef the recipe does call for the lean because we don’t want a lot of liquid a lot of fat in here because we need the filling to be fairly dry so it doesn’t get like watery when we mix it with that ricotta in a
Bit now I’m just going to say I know that I have told you on January 26th of 2023 that you can cook ground beef in the air fryer and that drains off all the fat and liquid from it in just a very easy way you can totally do that
For this recipe you would just skip the onion or you could add the onion in sort of partway through the ground beef cooking in the air fryer but you wouldn’t be sautéing it in a skillet you see what I mean so you can totally do
That if you want to know how to cook ground beef in the air fryer listen to that January 26th episode or head to cook theory.com and search for air fryer ground beef but in this re recipe we are saying to do it in the skillet so you’re
Going to cook it in the skillet with a bit of salt stirring occasionally until it’s cooked through a little caramelized if any fatter or liquid has come off you’re going to drain that away and then I transfer that beef to a large plate kind of spread it out on the plate and
That’s going to let it cool down just a little bit more quickly we don’t need it cold we just don’t want it so so hot that when we add it to the Ricotta and egg mixture that I’m about to tell you about it doesn’t like scramble cook that
Egg you know what I mean so get that meat onto a large plate set that aside and then we’re going to mix up some ricot get out a large bowl add a 15 oz container of whole milk Rana cheese one egg that you’ve lightly beaten 2 teaspoons of dried Italian seasoning and
2 teaspoons of garlic powder now there’s no actual salt in this mixture because we salted the beef and we’re going to mix the two together so it’s not going to taste quite as good as I was talking about when you’re just eating it from a spoon but it’s still really tasty and
You’re going to really like it I think okay by then your beef should have cooled down enough you can add that to this large bowl of ricotta mixture give that a good stir and taste it it should taste delicious we’re not adding any more seasoning to this mixture or to
This dish really so this is where it’s at give it a taste if you want a little garlicky a little saltier you want to add some black pepper now is the time and now we’re ready to assemble our shells so preheat the oven to 425° F get
Out a 9×13 in baking dish and I do like to grease the inside of the baking dish in case any like cheese or sauce just as at the top edges or on the bottom it can kind of brown and stick so I do like to do that I don’t think it’s super
Necessary while I am greasing that with a little cooking spray I also get out a large piece of aluminum foil and spray one side of that set the foil aside we don’t need that for a few minutes okay then you’re going to put two cups of marinara sauce just Jarred tomato sauce
Into that 19 x13 baking dish spread it out evenly and then get those shells that you’ve drained they’re cooked and you’re going to put about a heap keeping tablespoon of that Rana filling into each shell and then Nestle the shells into the tomato sauce in the baking dish
I like to arrange them in nice little rows now depending on how full you are able to get those shells you may or may not have some filling remaining at the end of stuffing them all if you have some left over you can just eat it with
A spoon you can save it for another use or sprinkle it around the shells in the tomato sauce and that’s just going to add all that delicious flavor to your sauce okay the recipe does call for another cup of tomato sauce so in the end you’re using a full 24 o jar of
Tomato sauce so that last cup that you’ve got left you’re just going to put a little bit of that sauce onto the top of each shell and then sprinkle the whole thing with some mozzarella cheese and then you’re going to get that prepared aluminum foil sheet oiled side
Down and cover your baking dish tightly it is going into that 425° fhe oven until the sauce is bubbling about 20 to 25 minutes then you can take the foil off off and bake for another 6 to 8 minutes until the cheese is definitely melted and starting to Brown take it out
Of the oven and you can serve it immediately I will let you know that you can get this recipe at cook theory.com if you head over there and search for stuffed shells or go to cook theory.com rotd and get the link there the recipe itself also has some great tips for
Freezing stuffed shells both as a whole pan and as like individual stuffed shells like in a bag so definitely check that out if you’re interested in knowing how to freeze this and I’m going to remind you that if you make this recipe or any recipe from cook theory.com and
You love it it would really help me out if you leave a five star rating and a comment those five stars show up when people are Googling for recipes you know when you’re searching for recipes and you see some recipes have five stars next to them and some don’t those five
Stars bring more people to my website and make my business Thrive and I love seeing your ratings and comments because then I know that you’re out there listening you’re out there reading these recipes and you’re trying them and tasting them and loving them that makes my day every single time I am Christine
Pitman from cook the story let’s get Cooking