Italian stuffed shells is what’s for dinner tonight.
1lb Italian sausage (or just regular sausage dressed up with some Italian seasoning)
1 – small container of Ricotta cheese
1- jar any spaghetti sauce you prefer
1 – bag parmesan cheese
1 – box jumbo shells
Start your water to cook the noodles make sure to salt it to help with flavor.
while you wait for it to boil you can cook your sausage, let it drain and cool.
Mix together your ricotta and half of both bags of cheese. Cook shells until almost done, but not too done or they will fall apart when you are stuffing them, they will finish cooking in the oven.
Once your shells are done drain and put them in cool water to stop the cooking. Add your cooled sausage to the ricotta mix along with Italian seasoning, salt and pepper and mix well.
Add some of your sauce to the bottom of your casserole dish.
Take a shell, open it up, and fill with the ricotta/sausage mix.
Lay in the dish and repeat till all your mix is used. It usually makes about 27-30 shells for me depending on how full you make your shells.
Once all is done cover with the rest of your sauce and cheese, sprinkle with basil and bake for 30 min at 350.
I serve with salad and garlic bread.
This is a labor of love but so worth the effort.