Jumbo flavor, jumbo fun.
Spaghetti is a great standby dish in most homes. So is lasagna. They’re satisfying, they’re tasty, and they’re pretty easy to cook.
But you have them all the time.
Boring.
There’s got to be a way to add a little wow factor without taking away from the ease and convenience those two dishes provide.
TA-DA! – through the magic of LHTC, we bring you the perfect compromise, pretty enough to take to a party, yummy enough to satisfy your Italian food craving, and so easy your 15-year-old son can (probably) make it.
On the menu tonight: stuffed jumbo pasta shells (conchiglioni, if you want to get all Italian about it).
First of all, we’ll address the stuffing issue. The most basic recipes usually call for a mixture of parsley or oregano, ricotta cheese, grated mozzarella, and parmesan (preferably not the kind in the can, but the kind that’s grated into tiny strips). Usually there’s also an egg or two added in to help the baked mixture hold its form once cooked. The final result is classic and delicious.
But you don’t have to use the basic stuffing recipe. You can add in sausage or spinach, take out the parmesan, or add in cheddar. You can do a stuffing with taco meat and green chilies to add a different kind of Latin flavor. This dish can be customized for the vegetarian or the meat-lover with equal ease. Let your imagination (and your taste buds) be your guide.
Some basic tips for cooking your shells:
•    Don’t get them too soft: You’ll be baking this dish after you set it up, and you don’t want the shells to completely fall apart. It ruins your presentation.
•    Don’t just dump them in a colander to drain – scoop them out and place them in the colander, so they don’t get damaged. You need big, beautiful, intact shells to hold your stuffing.
•    Run cold water over your shells once you get them into the colander, so they will cool more quickly and be easier to handle. It’s OK if they are not hot when you stuff them, because they’re going to bake before you serve them. It’s also a good idea to let your stuffing mixture rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before you start working with it, because it will hold its shape better and be easier to manipulate.
Because this is an Italian dish, your recipe is most likely going to call for some form of classic Italian sauce. So keep that in mind as you plan a filling. This doesn’t mean you need to create a stuffing that matches your sauce. Think the other way around. If you want to use a filling that has a lot of meat, change the sauce recipe: make a meatless tomato or tomato-and-mushroom sauce. If you want to go the Mexican route, add a little enchilada sauce to a basic tomato sauce, and go from there.
This dish can be as uncluttered or as complicated as you want it to be. Yet, even in its simplest forms, it always seems to have a little bit more flair than basic spaghetti.
Mangiare bene!