Big Dude's Eclectic Ramblings: Jumbo Shells Stuffed With Lemon Ricotta Filling

Thursday, February 6, 2025

Jumbo Shells Stuffed With Lemon Ricotta Filling

We’ve had a box of jumbo pasta shells for I don’t know how long and I’ve looked at many recipes to use them. Then along came the recipe for Easy Lemon Ricotta Stuffed Shells With Marinara Sauce from Velva on her “Evening With A Sandwich” blog and I decided it would be perfect for Friday now that buddy Joe has found he can eat gluten. I followed her recipe except for the hot honey and I made a couple of minor changes.

Jumbo Shells Stuffed With Lemon Ricotta Filling – Adapted slightly from Evening With A Sandwich

Ingredients:

24 uncooked jumbo pasta shells

10 pkg. frozen spinach, thawed

15 oz. ricotta cheese

5.3 oz. Boursin Garlic and Herb Cheese

1 large egg

Grated zest from 2 lemons (3 tbsp. juice)

1 tsp. kosher salt

3 oz. grated parmesan (about ¾ cup)

24 oz. marinara (Larry used Rao's)

~~1 tbsp. hot honey~~

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F.

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil, add shells, and cook to al dente.

Drain shells and rinse under cold water.

Squeeze as much water from the spinach as possible.

Stir together the ricotta, Boursin, egg, lemon zest, salt and ½ cup of the Parmesan until smooth then stir in the spinach.

Spread 2½ cups of marinara in the bottom of a 9”x13” prepared baking dish.

Place 2 tbsp. of the ricotta mixture into each shell.

Arrange shells, filling side up, on the sauce in the dish.

Top with remaining ½ cup of marinara and ¼ cup of parmesan.

Cover the dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes (or 30 min if starting from room temperature) then uncover and bake until sauce is bubbly and filling is creamy, about 20 more minutes.

The Verdict:

They were very good and Cindy just raved about them.

I had extra shells so I chopped them up, put half in a dish, covered with the ricotta filling, added the remaining shells and topped with a layer of sauce then I froze it.