Stuffed Shells

A while back, a coworker accepted another job and decided to leave our company. We had a pot-luck luncheon in her honor. I was the idiot that volunteered to bring the main course.

I needed something that could be easily transported and microwaved, since we were doing the lunch at our off-site meeting. I also wanted something that wouldn’t be too expensive or time-consuming to make, as well as something that would appeal to a lot of people, since I was new to the company and had no idea what people’s food preferences/ allergies/ etc. were.

I decided on stuffed shells.

First, boil a box of jumbo shells in lightly salted water until they are tender.

I shattered this glass bowl while cleaning up after this meal, so I hope you enjoy the picture of it.

Next, in a large bowl, combine eggs…

…. ricotta …

… shredded mozzarella and parmesan…

…and salt, pepper, and dried parsley.

Mix well.

One by one, stuff the cooked shells with the cheese mixture. I use a spoon to help out. I also put too much cheese in each, end up with far too many shells and no more filling, and then go back and squeeze them all to get more cheese.

Voila! I have two square dishes because these will fit in a microwave. They are oven-safe and microwave-safe, so they’re perfect.

In a large bowl, combine tomato sauce (I think I used a jar of spaghetti sauce) with mushrooms. The recipe says to add in more mozzarella and parmesan, but I didn’t like the way it turned out when I did this last time, so I’m doing it a little differently.

Spread the sauce on top of the shells.

And THEN sprinkle with mozzarella.

It was late, so I packaged them up to bake the next morning.

The next morning, since I don’t need to be at work until 11, I baked the shells. Mmmm, don’t they look nice?

They were pretty good, in my opinion. I noticed that some people picked out the mushrooms so maybe I shouldn’t have added those, but overall they went over very well. In fact, I intended to have the leftovers for lunch for the next few days, but they disappeared pretty quickly from our shared fridge that I had to go out and buy a sandwich instead. I’ll take it as a compliment.

Comment if you want the recipe, since it’s already printed.