Florentine Shells

This is a very special blog post for me! One of my very best friends had her first baby 19 days ago! Hooray! Caroline lives a few hours away, but last week I was able to get out of town for a few days so that I could go spend some time with her and meet little Dudley! I had such a wonderful visit! I really loved getting to spend some time with Caroline and Bob and I was super excited to meet Dudley and hold him! (I even got to rock him to sleep which was very special for me!) :-) He is so cute!! I wanted to be able to help out some, so I thought that one thing I could do was cook a few dinners for Caroline and Bob!

Here is a picture of my beautiful friend and the new little man in her life!

And here is a picture of Zuzu, my helper in the kitchen for a few days!

I have made this dish before and really liked it, but I had to alter the recipe some this time. The recipe has you mix together this stuffing mixture and then stuff it into jumbo pasta shells. However, when I went to the store, they were out of the jumbo pasta shells, and they also didn't have any other type of large stuffing shell. So, I got some small shells and rather than make stuffed pasta shells, I decided to make "unstuffed" pasta shells! I think it worked out well!

I will explain here what I did, but then the original recipe will be listed below as usual for you to use if you'd like! As I mentioned, I got the small shells, and as they cooked, I mixed together the ricotta cheese, spinach, Italian cheese blend, half-and-half, Parmesan cheese, garlic and seasonings together. Once the pasta shells finished cooking and I drained the water, I mixed the stuffing mixture in with the shells. I also whisked together the spaghetti sauce and half-and-half and heat that up on the stove while I was preparing everything else. After I mixed the stuffing mixture and shells together, I poured the sauce in with everything and mixed it all up really well!

Not quite how the recipe has you do it, but I thought it worked out well! The way I did it also didn't take nearly as much time to prepare as the original recipe, so that is good for if you need a quick meal. This dinner has a wonderful, creamy blend of flavors to it. I would consider this a classic Italian meal, that went perfectly with a garden salad and some garlic bread! A pretty tasty meal! Enjoy!

Dudley, once you get old enough to eat regular food, I'll make this again for you! ;-)

Florentine Shells
Pampered Chef: Main Dishes
Published by The Pampered Chef, Ltd. in 2000.

Prep time: 40 minutes  Cook time: 45 minutes  Yield: 6 servings

18 uncooked jumbo pasta shells
1 container (15 ounces) part-skim ricotta cheese
1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed dry
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Italian cheese blend, divided
3/4 cup half-and-half, divided
1 ounce fresh Parmesan cheese, grated (about 1/4 cup)
1 garlic clove, pressed
1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 jar (26-28 ounces) spaghetti sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Cook pasta shells according to package directions; drain.
2. Meanwhile, in Classic Batter Bowl, combine ricotta cheese, spinach 1 1/2 cups of the Italian cheese blend and 1/4 cup of the half-and-half. Grate Parmesan cheese into Batter Bowl using Deluxe Cheese Grater. Press garlic into Bowl using Garlic Press. Add seasonings; mix well and set aside.
3. In Small Batter Bowl, whisk spaghetti sauce and remaining 1/2 cup half-and-half with Stainless Steel Whisk until blended. Reserve 1 cup of the sauce mixture; spread remaining sauce mixture over bottom of Rectangular Baker. Using Medium Scoop, fill each shell with rounded scoop of spinach mixture. Arrange filled shells in Baker. Top evenly with reserved sauce mixture. Cover Baker with Rectangular Lid/Bowl.
4. Bake, covered, 40 minutes. Remove Lid/Bowl. Sprinkle shells with remaining 1/2 cup Italian cheese blend. Continue baking, uncovered, 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Remove from oven; let stand 10 minutes.