the blow that hits hard. The name describes how it looks, but you’ll be surprised by the flavor and strength! Wonderful cocktail for a gathering!
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 45 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 5 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
Ingredients
- 32 jumbo pasta shells
- 2 cups ricotta cheese
- 2 (10 ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
- 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons fennel seed
- 2 teaspoons dried basil
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- salt and pepper to taste
- 3 ½ cups spaghetti sauce
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Gently place pasta shells in boiling water; return water to a boil. Cook until shells are just tender; drain well.
- Squeeze spinach dry and place in a large mixing bowl. Add ricotta, 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, fennel, basil, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper; mix well.
- Spread 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce evenly over the bottom of a 9×13-inch baking dish.
- Fill each pasta shell with spinach-cheese mixture. Arrange shells, filling-side up, in the baking dish. Spoon remaining spaghetti sauce over shells. Sprinkle remaining Parmesan cheese on top of shells.
- Cover the pan loosely with aluminum foil and bake in the preheated oven until heated through, about 30 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 703 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 95 g |
| Cholesterol | 59 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 10 g |
| Protein | 33 g |
| Saturated Fat | 11 g |
| Sodium | 1004 mg |
| Sugars | 16 g |
| Fat | 21 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This recipe was great! I doubled the recipe because I was feeding my children an grandchildren. I used goat cheese an marscpone cheese in it as well. My family love love loved it. So from now on this will be in my monthly rotation of dinners.
I didn’t give this 5 stars because I made some modifications. For the cheese mixture I used only 1 10 oz. package of spinach. I ditched the fennel, basil, salt and pepper and instead added 2 tablespoons of Italian seasoning. I cooked the noodles 1/2 the time the package said so they wouldn’t get soggy while baking. I topped the dish with fresh grated mozzarella. It turned out yummy. Will make again with these modifications.
I used a 16 oz package of frozen spinach. It was very dry so that was good. And I used a 32 oz container of ricotta. And made two pans full. So I used a full jar of spaghetti sauce to go over it and some mozzarella cheese on top. Abondanza!
Next time I would grind the fennel in a mortar/pastel and add oregano and garlic powder
DELICIOUS! LOVE HIS RECIPE! Spinach and ricotta stuffed shells is one of my family’s favorites! The recipe is simple and easy to follow with just the right amount of ingredients! Simply delicious!
Made Saturday night everyone truly enjoyed it followed the recipe as is except I didn’t have Mozzarela Cheese I submitted with Asiago Cheese.
A keeper. Easy! The fennel is a wonderful taste surprise.
I’ve made these stuffed shells many times it’s a great recipe love the fennel seed.
I will definitely make this recipe again!
This is an awesome dish to make! I totally love this dish. I am always asked to make this dish for get togethers and birthday parties.
I didn’t have fennel seed so I used Italian seating to make up the flavor. Everyone in the extended family loved it. The Barilla brand shells has 40 shells in the box so I think next time I will double the ricotta cheese so I can fill all the shells nicely. It did have a lot of spinach but everyone liked it fine.
I had to give away the first batch because I didn’t know that fennel is licorice flavor. Second batch without fennel was wonderful, topped it with mozzarella cheese. I make large batches regularly, Everyone loves it!
It was so yummy even my 5 and 12 year old gobbled it up!! I added the shells to boiling water and let them boil for a few minutes then turned the burner off and let them sit in the water while I made the cheese and spinach filling, this way they were firm enough for me to fill them and they finished cooking in the oven. They were perfect! I added mozzarella, ricotta, cottage cheese and shredded parmesan(I prefer over grated), to the spinach along with garlic and basil it was so tasty!! I also topped it with mozzarella and shredded parmesan! Everyone loved it I will definitely make this again!!
Really good. I used Bertolli Vodka Sauce and 1 tsp crushed fennel instead. I followed few suggestions — added 1 egg and 1 cup mozzarella and only 10 oz. of spinach and sprinkled mozzarella on top. This is a keeper!
Excellent! I really enjoyed the fennel in here. I used 2 tablespoons of basil pesto in place of the basil. A nice change in pasta dish. Your choice of sauce will make or break the dish.. Use a good quality sauce. I used Barilla tomato basil.
My daughter helped me cook this tonight and my family thought it was delicious. Definitely a repeat maker
Thank you for submitting your recipe
The fennel gave it a wow factor. I did add some fresh mozzarella and a small amount of pesto since I had no basil in the filling. Home made sauce with sausage is what my family loves. This is a keeper. Thank you.
YUMMY
I enjoyed making It and it was great! Tonight was my turn to make dinner and everyone loved it! I listened to the comments and made some adjustments. I also made some sweet corn to go with it. Just delicious, definitely a favorite!
Very good! I left out the fennel and halved the ricotta with cottage cheese for extra moisture, and added mozzarella as some of the reviews suggested. Cooked the shells until just tender enough to manipulate. Filling the shells took a little practice, over filled them at first, but got the hang of it quickly. Since it is just my husband and I, I used 8-9 shells for one meal. The rest I laid out on a cookie sheet and froze, then placed in a Ziploc bag. I made it again sometime later and it worked perfectly!