Baked Pasta Shells With Ricotta, Spinach, Lemon & Mozzarella
I love the combination of spinach and ricotta – it’s a match made in heaven! This recipe is one you can cook for the whole family and it gets eaten, no need to make a separate dinner for the kids. Yippee!
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Ingredients
- 20–24 pasta shells jumbo size
- 1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 brown onion finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 3 cups baby spinach roughly chopped
- 500 g ricotta cheese fresh
- 1 lemon zested
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese grated
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese grated, plus extra for topping
- 2 eggs
- sea salt & cracked black pepper
- 3 cups passata sauce
- 1/2 bunch basil leaves picked & chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C conventional (160°C fan-forced).
- Heat a large pot of salted water over high heat. Once boiling, add the pasta shells and cook until al dente – don’t overcook, as they will continue to cook in the oven.
- Heat a large frying pan over medium heat and add the olive oil. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, for 3–4 minutes. Add the spinach and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until wilted. Remove from the heat and let it cool for about 10 minutes.
- In a medium bowl, place the spinach mix, ricotta, lemon zest, mozzarella, parmesan, eggs and a pinch of salt. Mix until well combined.
- In a large baking dish, pour in 2 cups of the passata and spread evenly. Lay the pasta shells down and fill each shell generously with the ricotta/spinach mix. Pour over the remaining passata.
- Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil, sprinkle with some extra parmesan cheese and bake for a further 5 minutes. Sprinkle with the basil and season well.
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