Spinach Shells Casserole
Posted by kathy on January 20th, 2010. Filed under: recipes.
I am always looking for new, tasty, somewhat healthy, easy recipes. When I saw this one on the Rachel Ray Show, I had to try it. I’ve made stuffed shells before, but it was an awful lot of work. This looked so easy! I took a few liberties to make it my own and to make sure Jerrad would like it. He’s not a huge fan of pasta or marinara sauce so I had to be creative and a few things. And Rachel Ray’s was mostly homemade. I don’t have the most time on my hands so I used a few store bought ingredients instead.
Ingredients:
- 1 package pasta shells
- 1/2 to 1lb ground meat (I used beef because I had it on hand)
- 1 package of frozen chopped spinach (thawed, drained, squeezed dry)
- 1 container of part skim ricotta cheese
- 2 jars of spaghetti sauce (I got BOGO at BiLo the other day…you could also make your own)
- 1 egg
Directions: Preheat the oven to around 425. Prepare the noodles according to the package direction except don’t let them get done. My package called for 10 minutes, so I cooked them for 7. While the noodles are cooking, brown your meat. Add in Italian seasonings, garlic, and onion. I took the quick way and used all dry ingredients. I’m sure fresh would taste amazing too.
Drain the noodles and the ground beef. Combine noodles, beef, ricotta cheese, spinach, egg, and some extra spices to taste. Mix it all up thoroughly.
In a large casserole dish, pour enough spaghetti sauce to cover the bottom of the dish. Spread the entire noodle mixture over the entire dish. Pour the rest of the spaghetti sauce over the noodles. Top with Parmesan cheese. Bake in the oven until the cheese has melted and the sauce is bubbling. Serve with toast or bread or whatever else you like.
My husband LOVED it! He almost made himself sick eating it! It you like Italian food, you’ll love this recipe.