Baking with Basil

Brent and I hosted our first dinner party last night……it was so much fun!!  We had a few friends over for dinner, drinks, and lots of great conversation.  And let me tell you the wine was flowing.  Gotta love Sunday Fundays!   

We started out the night with some Cowboy Cavier that Molly and Nick brought over.  I’m going to have to get the recipe from Molly…..it never disappoints.  We then moved on to the main course.  These shells are cheesy, hearty, and delicious.  The recipe calls to process the ricotta and cottage cheese together which makes the stuffing so fluffy and smooth.  The nice thing about this recipe is that you can put it all together before your guests arrive and while it’s baking you can hang out and chat.

We were having so much fun I forgot to take a picture of the plate before I served it.  Oops!  I did get a few still left in the pan. 

Stuffed Shells with Smoky Marinara

Recipe from Cooking Light

1 box of jumbo shell pasta (20 shells)

1 large bag of fresh spinach

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 cup 1% low-fat cottage cheese

1 cup ricotta cheese

1/2 cup shredded Asiago cheese

1/3 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese

1 tbsp chopped fresh chives

1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp salt

3 cups smoky marinara (recipe below)

1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Smoky Marinara

2 tsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp chopped fresh basil

1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1 tbsp chopped fresh or 2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 pepper

1 (28 ounce) can crushed fire roasted tomatoes, undrained

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat.  Add garlic, basil, parsley, and oregano; saute 1 minute.  Stir frequently.  Stir in vinegar and remaining ingredients.  Reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.  Puree the sauce in a food processor or using an immersion blender. (optional – I skipped this step because I wanted a chunkier sauce).

Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat.  Drain and set aside.  Cook the spinach in two teaspoons of olive oil over medium heat, until the spinach is wilted.  Let the spinach cool.  Wrap in a couple of paper towels; squeeze to drain.  Set the spinach aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Coat a 13×9 inch baking dish with cooking spray; set aside.

Place cottage and ricotta cheese in a food processor, process until smooth.  Combine cheese mixture, asiago, parmesan, chives, parsley, salt and pepper.  Stir together.

Spoon or pipe 1 tablespoon mixture into each shell.  Arrange stuffed shells seam sides up in prepared dish.  Spoon marinara over stuffed shells.  Sprinkle with 1/2 cup mozzarella.

Bake for 30-35 minutes (bake longer if you have more shells).  Once heated thoroughly, turn on broiler for about 3-5 minutes until the tops of the shells are nicely browned.