Italian Sausage, Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells

Name: Italian Sausage, Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 8-10 servings
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 12 ounce jumbo pasta shells; 1 Tbsp olive oil; 1 medium onion, finely chopped; 1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 1 large egg; 16 ounces ricotta cheese; 10 ounces chopped frozen spinach, thawed, squeezed dry, roughly chopped; 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese; 1 Tbsp dried parsley; ½ teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon pepper; 2 (15 ounce) cans Hunt’s Diced Tomatoes; 1 (15 ounce can Hunt’s Tomato Sauce; 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning; 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

December 1, 2017 by Angela 34 Comments

For as long as I can remember my family has had pasta for dinner on Christmas Eve, with the holiday ham reserved for Christmas Day. My mom is well known for her lasagna, and I kept the lasagna tradition going for a while with my own family. A few years back, I decided to try something a little different while still keeping to the tradition of Christmas Eve pasta. I’ve made Penne alla Vodka and Baked Rigatoni, but this year I’ve decided to try something different and make Italian Sausage, Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells. Sounds good, right? Earlier this week I gave my stuffed shells recipe a trial run and am so pleased with how it turned out. YUM. It’s definitely a holiday worthy pasta dish.

Sponsored post by Mirum on behalf of Hunt’s tomatoes.

Jumbo pasta shells filled with a mixture of sweet Italian sausage, spinach and ricotta cheese. Smothered in a chunky red sauce and topped with Mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

It’s not often that a recipe turns out perfect the first time, but this time the planets aligned giving me pasta perfection. I wouldn’t change anything about how these stuffed shells turned out. Compared to a lot of baked pasta dishes these shells take a little more time to assemble, but the end result is definitely worth it.

You could use ready-made marinara for this recipe, but it takes little more effort to make your own sauce. Especially for the holidays, it is definitely worth it.

There are no hard to find or expensive ingredients. I found everything I need for this recipe, including the Hunt’s Diced Tomatoes, from Walmart.

I always use Hunt’s tomatoes when making my own sauce. They are the purest tomato, from field to can with nothing in between. You can really taste the difference.

Italian Sausage, Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells

Ingredients:
12 ounce jumbo pasta shells
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large egg
16 ounces ricotta cheese
10 ounces chopped frozen spinach, thawed, squeezed dry, roughly chopped
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp dried parsley
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
2 (15 ounce) cans Hunt’s Diced Tomatoes
1 (15 ounce can Hunt’s Tomato Sauce
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta shells according to the instructions on the package. Drain, rinse in cold water, and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium high heat. Add the onions and cook until softened, a few minutes. Add sausage to the pan, breaking up the sausage into smaller bits. Cook sausage about 5 minutes, until cooked through, and no pink remains. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove pan from heat.

In a bowl, combine diced tomatoes and sauce and Italian seasoning. Spread half of the diced tomatoes into the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish.

In a large bowl, beat the egg lightly. Mix in the ricotta, chopped spinach, 1/2 cup of the Parmesan cheese, parsley, salt, pepper, and sausage mixture. Fill each cooked pasta shell with some of the ricotta, spinach, sausage mixture. Arrange the stuffed shells in the baking dish. Spread remaining diced tomatoes over the pasta and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

Heat oven to 375°F. Cover baking pan with aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil, sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese and bake uncovered an additional 10 minutes.

Note: Depending on how much filling you put into each pasta shell, you may or may not use the entire box of shells. I was very generous with the filling and ended up with 27 shells. You should be able to feed 8-10 people with this recipe, with a serving size of 3 to 4 shells per person.

Also, you could easily assemble this dish a day or two ahead. Just cover with foil and keep in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake it off and serve.

This Italian Sausage, Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells recipe is kid friendly. My picky 9-year old absolutely loved these stuffed shells.

What is your family’s Christmas Eve dinner tradition?

Every tradition starts from scratch. Visit the Hunt’s website for more holiday recipe inspiration.

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