These Stuffed Shells with Spinach and Pesto are a delicious vegetarian meal with three cheeses, pesto, and frozen spinach stuffed into large shells and topped with sauce and more cheese. A hearty and cheesy meal the whole fam will love.
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What are stuffed shells?
Stuffed shells is a dish that combines lasagna and ravioli, in a sense. It’s basically large shell pasta stuffed with a cheese mixture that sometimes contains some kind of vegetable or meat.
The difference between stuffed shells and other stuffed pasta such as manicotti is simply the type of pasta. In this instance, it's large shells vs. manicotti (which is similar to a rigatoni but longer and with a larger hole).
Ingredients
These vegetarian spinach and ricotta stuffed shells are taken up a notch with pesto!
- Pasta: We are using the large stuffed shells for this recipe. Cook them one or two minutes short of the box instructions so they are al-dente. They’ll finish cooking in the oven.
- Cheese: This recipe uses a combination of three cheeses: mozzarella, ricotta, and parmesan. Each one serves a different purpose, so I would not recommend skipping any.
- Spinach: To keep things simple I use frozen spinach thawed and squeezed to get as much liquid out as possible.
- Pesto: A bit of pesto gets added to the cheese mixture and dolloped on top prior to baking - it brings a herby and major flavor kick that is so good. Either store-bought or homemade.
- Egg: One egg helps bind the cheese mixture together so that it doesn’t ooze out of the pasta too much.
- Sauce: Your favorite jarred marinara or homemade sauce will be great here.
Step by step instructions
Cheesy stuffed shells really are quite simple to make, they just take a little bit of patience to actually stuff.
Prep: defrost the frozen spinach and squeeze out as much water as you can.
1. Cook the pasta. In a large pot of salted water cook the pasta until al dente. Drain and set aside.
2. Make the cheese mixture. In a mixing bowl, combine the ricotta, shredded mozzarella, parmesan, spinach, pesto, egg, salt, and pepper. Once mixed together, transfer to a plastic bag and snip the bottom.
3. Stuff the shells. To a baking dish, put about ½ cup of sauce on the bottom. To each shell, squeeze in a few tablespoons of the cheese mixture and place open-side up in the baking dish. Repeat until the dish is full.
4. Finish assembly. Pour the remaining sauce over the shells and top with a few dollops of pesto and a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese (if you hae fresh mozzarella you can tear that on top instead).
5. Bake. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 350℉ until the cheese is bubbly.
Tips and tricks
- Make sure you boil the shells to al-dente. This is usually a minute or two before the package indicates. They will finish cooking as they bake in the oven.
- Boil a few extra shells, some may break so it’s good to have backups.
- Swap fresh spinach if you’d like - sauté it and squeeze out any excess moisture before adding to the cheese mixture.
- Add veggies or meat to the sauce - if you’re using jarred sauce you can cook the meat separately and combine it with the sauce before you assemble the dish.
- Instead of torn mozzarella on the top you could just add more shredded mozzarella.
- You can use a spoon to get the filling into the shells but I find it's easier to use the bag - it gets a little messy otherwise.
How to serve
This dish is really hearty and filling, so I’d recommend serving with sides on the lighter side (such as salad or veggies)! This salad would be delicious, or these honey sriracha brussels sprouts.
FAQs
Yes! You can prep the dish up to 2 days in advance. Cover and keep in the fridge until you're ready to bake. I'd recommend taking it out of the fridge about 15 minutes before you want to bake it to get the chill off.
Yes! Prep the stuffed shells and freeze it before baking. It can stay in the freezer for up to 3 months. Reheat it in the oven at 350 for 40-45 minutes covered and 10-15 minutes uncovered.
After baked, it can be stored in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
If you want to reheat in the oven bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes covered.
If you want to reheat in the microwave do so in single servings for a few minutes until heated through.
You can but I don't recommend it. The egg is the binder of the cheese mixture, so it just might be more runny/liquidy without it.
Recipe
Stuffed Shells with Spinach and Pesto
INGREDIENTS
- 10 oz frozen chopped spinach
- 15 oz whole milk ricotta cheese (1 ¾ cups)
- ½ cup grated parmesan
- ½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 2 tablespoon pesto homemade or store-bought, separated
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 7 oz jumbo shell pasta (half a box)
- 1 jar marinara sauce
- 4 oz fresh mozzarella cheese torn
- 1 tablespoon fresh basil chopped
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat your oven to 350℉.
- In a large pot of salted water cook the pasta until al dente. Drain and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the ricotta, shredded mozzarella, parmesan, spinach, pesto, egg, salt, and pepper. Once mixed together, transfer to a plastic bag and snip the bottom about 1 inch deep.
- To a baking dish, pour ½ cup of sauce on the bottom.
- To each cooked shell, squeeze in a few tablespoons of the cheese mixture and place it open-side up in the baking dish. Repeat until the dish is full/you are out of pasta.
- Pour the remaining sauce over the shells and top with a few dollops of pesto and a torn mozzarella cheese.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes at 350℉ until the cheese is bubbly. Option to broil for a few minutes to get brown on the top.
NOTES
- Make sure you boil the shells to al-dente. This is usually a minute or two before the package indicates. They will finish cooking as they bake in the oven.
- Boil a few extra shells, some may break so it’s good to have backups.
- Swap fresh spinach if you’d like - sauté it and squeeze out any excess moisture before adding to the cheese mixture.
- Add veggies or meat to the sauce - if you’re using jarred sauce you can cook the meat separately and combine it with the sauce before you assemble the dish.
- Instead of torn mozzarella on the top you could just add more shredded mozzarella.
- You can use a spoon to get the filling into the shells but I find it's easier to use the bag - it gets a little messy otherwise.
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