Stuffed Shells with meat sauce
Caesar salad
Rosemary rolls
Home made brownies and ice cream
Want the recipe's? I took some pictures. Mind you, they were awful because my good camera is in storage and the lighting in the kitchen is no bueno. But that's just an excuse.
The meat sauce came from the lovely Pioneer woman. I changed nothin' about it. Its great.
The shells I adapted from a basic stuffed shells recipe. I personally do not like ricotta cheese. I think its bland and has a gritty texture. So I added a twist to mine that gives it some flava flave and really makes them POP!
So we have here, fresh basil, onion, garlic, canned fire roasted tomato's, goat cheese, cottage cheese, cream cheese, ricotta cheese, parm cheese, italian sausage, red wine...must have....and jumbo pasta shells.
Get your sauce going first...the longer it cooks, the better it will taste.
*tip, use canola oil to saute with instead of olive. Chef Robert, in a coking class I took awhile back explained that olive oil burns at a lower temperature then canola oil, so you end up having to use more of it and well frankly its expensive. Food network uses olive oil all day long.( probably because they are getting paid to) But most likely in a real restaurant, they are sauteing your food with canola oil. You can't taste either one in the finished product.(and if you think you can I would like to challenge you.) Its one thing to finish off your dish with a dash of olive oil another to cook with it...do what you want with it (:
Saute - means to jump in french. So you want your pan hot when you drop in the goods.
Get a tablespoon or two of oil heating up in your pan. while that's going chop your onion( I have a tutorial on chopping later. Trust me its worth it. When I was shown how to properly chop an onion it was revolutionary.)
when the oil first starts to smoke, its ready for your onion. Drop it in and hear it sizzle.
Then chop up your garlic. I like to use a garlic twist when I want the garlic really fine and keep all the juices with it, but it's in storage.
Add the garlic once the onion is translucent and fragrant. All the garlic needs is a minute. You will start to smell it, that's when you add your sausage.
I didn't get a picture of every step, sorry. Basically you want to cook this till its nice and brown. No need to drain the fat. After about 10 minutes or so it'll be time to add the red wine and this is what really brings the flavor.
(So blurry, please forgive me.)
Let that cook down a little bit, then pour in your tomatoes. Add salt, pepper, and sugar to taste and then leave it alone for 30+ minutes.
I guess you should stir it every once in awhile.
oh it smells so good....
.lets move on to the shells.
Get your water boilin' and the oven preheating to 350....hopefully by the time you finish all this stuffing, your sauce will be ready.
Its time to chop up some basil. Use fresh, its worth it. I have tried growing basil 3 times and I kill it. A green thumb is something I did not inherit from my mother.
This is how you chop it. Roll up as much as you can and slice away. I used the whole package. Because its so dang good I didn't see any reason why I shouldn't.
Now we gotta make the filling. I left out up top that I used an egg. Don't forget cause you need it.
I added the goat cheese because it adds a really great level of flavor. Using the whole brick does not over power the flavor at all, but i'm sure that has to do with using a whole brick of cream cheese as well. I add almost but not all of a container of ricotta as a filler. The other cheese's cover it up enough that you don't really taste it. The cottage cheese was a fluke. I bought it forgetting that I use it in lasagna not stuffed shells. Oops. I added some anyway(:
(yum)
Add salt and pepper, I added some red pepper but the papa helton didn't like it. I also added "Italian seasoning" because its yummy and I use it a lot in everything.
You want to only boil your shells for HALF the cooking time. Like 6 mins. Because its going to bake in the oven for 30 mins.
Cook em'. Drain em'. Cool em'.
Its time to stuff! I filled up 2 9x13 baking dishes. If you want, after you stuff them and cover them in sauce you could probably seal it up pretty good and stuff one in the freezer. Or maybe take it to your sick neighbor. yum. Wouldn't that be a good neighbor to have? Some one who brought you food when they made to much?
I like having left overs so I made them both.
(big heaping spoon. over stuff it. it's worth it.)
By now your sauce should be done. USE IT ALL. cover up those puppies. Then, cover them in freshly shredded parmesan cheese and pop them in the oven for 25-30 until nice and bubbly!
(bottom rack so they don't burn)
I made caesar salad and rolls to go with. The caesar salad was from a "salad kit' at the grocery store. it included the dressing, croutons, and cheese (: and the rolls were frozen in a tray. I put pats of butter, rosemary and a little sea salt on them...delish. Don't hate, who has time to make caesar salad and rolls fresh?
(this is as good as it gets. I had hungry people to feed.)
oh and here is a treat for later. I'll post this recipe sometime later today.
Recipes and References:
Meat Sauce:
(I doubled Pioneer Womans)
1lbs of Italian Sausage
1 medium white onion, diced
4 large garlic cloves, diced
2 C of red wine ( you can buy cooking wine in the dressing isle for 3 bucks)
4 14.5 cans of fire roasted tomatoes
1 tbls. brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste
Heat a few tbs. of oil in a large frying or saute pan. When its smoking drop in your diced onion and saute until translucent and fragrant.Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add sausage and cook until brown, about 10 minutes. When sausage is done, pour in the red wine and allow it to simmer and bubble for a few minutes. Then add tomatoes and seasoning and simmer for 30 minutes or more.
Shells
1 package of jumbo shells (11 0z? it was the only package at walmart)
12 oz cream cheese
10 oz goat cheese( maybe 12? there are two different sizes at the store. I bought the largest. Sam's Club has it cheaper.)
12 oz ricotta
1 cup of grated parmesan
1 cup of chopped basil
1 egg
seasoning to taste
Boil water. Add shells and cook for half the cooking time that the package directs.( usually 6 minutes). Drain and cool until ready to stuff.
Mix all the cheese's, chopped basil, spice's, and egg and mix to completed blended.
Spread a little sauce done on your baking dish so they don't stick. Stuff the shells and place them open side down into the pan. Cover with sauce and top with grated parmesan. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes until hot and bubbly all the way through.
Stuffed Shells
Jumbo package of shells (11 or 12 oz. there was only one size at walmart)
This looks so yummy! I wish I was your neighbor!
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