Stuffed pasta shells with spinach

Stuffed pasta shells with spinach

A tasty and balanced dish. Fresh ricotta cheese and  nice crispy pancetta to top it off. I love pancetta, it has so much more flavor than regular bacon. Also tastes much less greasy and salty than regular bacon.

This dish is not a quick bite to make, because you work in several steps, but it is certainly not difficult to make. Be sure to check out the kids tip, for our some more picky eaters.

What do you need?

• 200 gr (7 oz) pasta shells
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 onion, shredded
• 400 gr (14 oz)  tomato cubes
• 1 teaspoon of oregano
• 250 gr (8,8 oz) ricotta
• 250 g (8,8 oz frozen spinach, thawed
• 200 gr (7 oz) pancetta
• 30 gr (1 oz) grana padano cheese or
• Pepper and salt

How to make it?

Preheat your oven to 200 °C or 390 °F (180 °C or 350°F hot air)

In a large cooking pot, cook the pasta shells as described on the packaging. Cook them al dente, they go in the oven so they will cook a little more in there.

Take a small cooking pot and fry the chopped onion and minced garlic in a little olive oil.

Add the tomato cubes and the oregano. Let it simmer for 15 minutes on a low heat. Stir frequently.

In the meantime, you can put the defrosted spinach in a sieve and press the moisture out of the spinach with a spoon.

Put the spinach and ricotta in a bowl and stir well. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside for a moment.

When the tomato cubes are ready, mix the sauce with a mixer and season with salt and pepper.

Pour the sauce into the bottom of your oven dish and spread well.

Fill the pasta shells with the spinach-ricotta mixture and place on top of the sauce. Repeat until you used all the spinach mixture . Top with cheese and put in the oven for 20 minutes.

In the meantime, cut the pancetta into pieces and fry them crispy. When the dish comes out of the oven, sprinkle with pancetta and serve.

Bon Appetit!

KIDS TIP: If your children are not too fond of spinach, you can also fill some shells with tomato sauce and ham cubes.