{"id":181,"date":"2015-02-16T15:58:08","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T15:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/recipes.seatoad.net\/?p=181"},"modified":"2015-02-16T16:03:57","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T16:03:57","slug":"meat-stuffed-shells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/recipes.seatoad.net\/?p=181","title":{"rendered":"Meat Stuffed Shells"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is a delicious recipe taken almost verbatim from Emeril Lagasse. The only changes I&#8217;ve made have been to add a little more sauce and cheese and to alter the cooking a bit so that it doesn&#8217;t dry out. This recipe freezes very well&#8211;just allow extra time for thawing and a little more baking.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Prep Time: 90 minutes<\/li>\n<li>Baking Time: 25 minutes<\/li>\n<li>Servings: 7 (3 shells each)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Ingredients<\/h2>\n<div>1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon olive oil<br \/>\n2 teaspoons salt<br \/>\n1\/2 (12-ounce) box jumbo pasta shells (18 to 20 shells)<br \/>\n2 cups finely chopped onion<br \/>\n2 teaspoons minced garlic<br \/>\n1 pound ground veal<br \/>\n1 (10-ounce) package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry<br \/>\n15 ounces ricotta cheese<br \/>\n2 large eggs<br \/>\n1 cup grated Parmesan cheese<br \/>\n3 cups grated mozzarella cheese<br \/>\n1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil<br \/>\n1 teaspoon Essence, recipe follows<br \/>\n1 teaspoon dried basil<br \/>\n1 teaspoon dried oregano<br \/>\n1\/2 teaspoon ground black pepper<\/div>\n<p><strong>Essence (Creole Seasoning)<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>2 1\/2 parts paprika<br \/>\n2 parts salt<br \/>\n2 part garlic powder<br \/>\n1 part black pepper<br \/>\n1 part onion powder<br \/>\n1 part cayenne pepper<br \/>\n1 part dried leaf oregano<br \/>\n1 part dried thyme<\/div>\n<p><strong>Basic Red Sauce<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>2 teaspoons olive oil<br \/>\n1\/2 chopped yellow onion<br \/>\n1\/2 teaspoon minced garlic<br \/>\n1\/4 teaspoon salt<br \/>\n1\/4 teaspoon dried basil<br \/>\n1\/4 teaspoon dried oregano<br \/>\n1\/8 teaspoon ground black pepper<br \/>\n16 ounces whole peeled tomatoes, broken into pieces, and their juices<br \/>\n16 ounces tomato sauce<\/div>\n<h2>Directions<\/h2>\n<div>\n<ol>\n<li>Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 2-quart casserole dish with 1 teaspoon of olive oil.<\/li>\n<li>Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add 1 teaspoon of the salt and the pasta shells, and cook until al dente, 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally with a long-handled spoon to prevent the shells from sticking together. Drain and rinse under cold running water. Drain.<\/li>\n<li>In a medium skillet, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring, until very soft, 6 to 7 minutes. Add the ground veal and cook, stirring, until cooked and browned. Add the squeezed spinach and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper.<\/li>\n<li>In a large bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, eggs, Parmesan cheese, and 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese. Add the spinach mixture, the extra-virgin olive oil, Essence, remaining teaspoon of salt, the basil, oregano, and pepper, and stir to combine thoroughly. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the spinach-ricotta filling into each cooked pasta shell. Place the filled shells in the prepared dish.<\/li>\n<li>Pour the Basic Red Sauce over the filled shells and top with the remaining 2 cups of mozzarella cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake about 15 minutes. Then uncover and bake another 10, until bubbly. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Basic Red Sauce<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>In a medium pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, salt, basil, oregano, and pepper. Cook, stirring, until soft, about 5 minutes.<\/li>\n<li>Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, and sugar. Stir well. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.<\/li>\n<li>Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, until thickened and fragrant, 25 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Yield: 3 cups<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Preparation\/Cooking Notes<\/h2>\n<p>As with all noodles, allow the shells decent time to cool so that sauce can adhere well.<\/p>\n<h2>Serving Notes<\/h2>\n<p>Goes well with aa green green vegetable (e.g., green beans). Be sure to include bread (garlic or regular Italian) to sop up the delicious sauce!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is a delicious recipe taken almost verbatim from Emeril Lagasse. The only changes I&#8217;ve made have been to add a little more sauce and cheese and to alter the cooking a bit so that it doesn&#8217;t dry out. This recipe freezes very well&#8211;just allow extra time for thawing and a little more baking. Prep [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,21,41,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hearty-dishes","category-italian","category-main-dish","category-noodles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/recipes.seatoad.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/recipes.seatoad.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/recipes.seatoad.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recipes.seatoad.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recipes.seatoad.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/recipes.seatoad.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/recipes.seatoad.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recipes.seatoad.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recipes.seatoad.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}