Four-Cheese & Spinach Stuffed Shells (e82)

Buon giorno a tutti e auguroni Italia! In this episode, Nonna Mia, la nonna di tutti (everyone's grandmother), pays tribute to Italy's National Day by featuring red, white and green - Italy's colours.

She begins this episode by making her classic tomato sauce, then proceeds to make the filling, stuffs the shells and finally bakes them. Here is what you will need for this recipe:

Sauce:
- 1/4 cup of EVOO
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 litres of passata / tomato puree
- dried oregano, to taste
- fresh basil leaves, to taste
- parmesan cheese wheel rings (optional)
- sea salt

Nonna sautés the onion and garlic in EVOO until translucent. She then adds 2 litres of passata / tomato puree, seasons it with dried oregano, fresh basil and sea salt and simmers for a minimum of 30 minutes. She shares that she always adds some parmesan cheese wheel rind into the sauce - it adds its beautiful flavour to the sauce! Some grocery stores even sell the wheel skin, but it is recommended that you always grate your own parmesan cheese by purchasing chunks of parmesan. Parmigiana Reggiano is the king of parmesan cheese!

Filling:
- 3 cups of spinach
- minced garlic clove
- evoo for sautéing
- 1/2 cup of feta
- 1 cup of grated Parmigano Reggiano
- 2 cups of grated mozzarella
- 2 3/4 cups of ricotta
- 1/3 cup of chopped Italian parsley
- 500 grams of jumbo shells

Nonna sautés the spinach in EVOO and garlic, allows it to cool, and chops it, in preparation for the filing - it makes about 1/2 cup once cooked and chopped.

In a mixing bowl, she blends 4 cheeses: feta, parmesan, mozzarella and ricotta, then adds in the parsley and spinach. She spoons the mixture into a plastic bag, snips the tip, and uses the bag to pipe in the filling into her pasta shells. Alternatively, you can also use a small spoon. Nonna's 500 gram bag had 62 shells. This filling is a family favourite and vegetarians can enjoy it as well.

She boils the shells for half the required time on the package, so that they are soft enough to fill, but remain firm. The shells will continue to cook in the oven. Once she pipes in the filling, she places the stuffed shells on a tray, that is well coated with her tomato sauce.

She tops the shells with more sauce, sprinkles parmesan and mozzarella, and covers the trays with tin foil.

Bake in an oven at 350F for about 30 minutes, remove the foil and continue to bake 5-10 minutes. Lastly, allow the shells to rest about 5 minutes.

When plating, use a spoon of remaining sauce on the base of each plate, place 3 or 4 shells on the plate and top with a fresh basil leaf.

Buon appetito!

Contact Details:
Mobile: 1 249.877.8822 or via
Email: nonnamiarecipes@gmail.com & josietulipano@gmail.com

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Видео Four-Cheese & Spinach Stuffed Shells (e82) канала Nonna Mia!