For fans of vegetables, the spinach and cheese stuffed pasta shells is the perfect dish. It doesn’t contain a hint of meat in it, which will likely appease to your vegetarian friends as well. In other words, the most noncontroversial dish in the house which is delicious to eat and will leave your friends and family asking for more. We will combine spinach with creamy ricotta and mozzarella cheese to give us a healthy dish which will make for an excellent vegetarian meal.
Health benefits
Spinach is low in fat, contains even lower cholesterol and high amounts of niacin, zinc, magnesium, phosphorous and a host of other vitamins. Spinach also contains thiamine and riboflavin which his used in important reactions of the body. Spinach is also rich in various pigments such as beta carotene, xanthenes and lutein.
All of these ingredients help to improve our eyesight because of the anti inflammatory properties of spinach. It also treats macular degeneration, which is one of the primary reasons for blindness because it gradually erodes lutein and xanthenes from our retinas. Spinach helps to regain two pigments and thus prevent macular degeneration.
Ingredients
jump pasta shells: 30
cups of ricotta cheese: 2
ounce of frozen spinach cheese, thawed and drained: 10
tbsp of fennel seed: 2
tbsp of dried basil: 2
cloves of minced garlic: 4
salt and pepper for taste
cups of spaghetti sauce: 3 1/2
How To Make Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Pasta Shells
- Preheat the oven to about 350 degrees F
- Fill a large pot with salted water and boil it. Place pasta shells in the water and begin boiling again. Cook the noodles until they are tender.
- Mix spinach, ricotta, 1/3 cup of cheese, basil, fennel and garlic in a large bowl. Season the mixture with salt and pepper.
- Spread ½ cup of marinara sauce on the bottom of a baking dish.
- Fill the pasta shells with the spinach cheese mixture.
- Arrange the shells in the baking dish. Spreading the remainder of the marinara sauce on the shells.
- Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan Cheese on the shells.
- Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake the shells in preheated oven for 30 minutes.
Trivia
- Spinach is native to Persia. It was introduced by the Persians to China in the 7h century after which it was brought to Europe. It was only a matter of time before it made its way to the US in 1806.
March 26th is widely known as the National Spinach Day.