Spanakopita Stuffed Shells

Please tell me you’ve had spanakopita before!  Ricotta cheese, feta cheese and spinach, usually all wrapped up in phyllo pastry.  How can you go wrong?

Apparently that was how I thought as a kid because that was all I ordered every time we went out for Greek food when I was a kid.  How boring was I as a kid?  Wait, who am I kidding, I’m still pretty boring

I did score some not-boring points when I served this for dinner last night though.  The hubby even took the leftovers for lunch today.  Is it weird that that is how I determine if a dish is successful or not?  Then again, that’s only one way to judge a meals successfulness and certainly not my only way, but in this case I’ll take it.

If you’ve noticed, I’ve started putting nutrition info on the recipes I’ve posted recently.  I hope you’ll forgive me for not adding any nutrition info to this one.  I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know   Although with low fat cheeses I’m sure it wouldn’t be too bad… But I’ll leave it up to you if you want to figure it out.

Speaking of nutrition, I was frustrated that I couldn’t find whole grain shells at our local grocery store.  Do you have them where you live?  We do live in a small town, so I don’t really know if they just aren’t common, or if they just aren’t here.  I’ll have to look when I go shopping elsewhere, but for now, these were a delicious once-in-a-while meal.

I ended up using the very last of my homemade marinara sauce from last summer on this.  I cooked down 30 pounds of tomatoes into (I think) 5 quarts of thick, amazing tomatoey sauce that I added the remnants of my herb garden into as well.  Have I mentioned that I cannot wait for summer?  I used up my last of that amazing sauce!  Summer can’t come fast enough.

Oh, and now I remember where I was going with that tangent… If you’re whipping up your own sauce to go on top you could give it a bit of a Greek flare with some Greek seasoning or just plenty of oregano.  I think that would be awesome

Spanakopita Stuffed Shells

 

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Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

1 hour

 

Author: Heidi @ Food Doodles

Recipe type: Entree

Yield: 6

Ingredients

• 2 250g or 8.9oz package jumbo shells(whole grain if you can find them), cooked according to package directions
• 1 454g container ricotta cheese(approx. 2 C)
• ½ of a 400g container of feta cheese, crumbled(approx. ¾ C)
• 1 tbsp butter or oil
• 155g or 5.5oz fresh baby spinach, roughly chopped
• 2 large eggs
• A generous pinch of ground nutmeg
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 C marinara sauce(or one large jar)

Instructions

1. Cook the pasta shells according to the directions found on the package and then drain, run under cold water, and drain again.
2. While the shells are cooking, stir together the ricotta cheese and feta. In a skillet, heat the butter or oil and very lightly saute the spinach just until it wilts, 1-2 minutes over medium heat. Stir the spinach into the cheese. Add the eggs and stir well. Add the nutmeg, and season with salt and pepper and stir well.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9×13 pan by spreading just enough tomato sauce to cover the bottom of the pan.
4. Begin stuffing the shells by holding them open in one hand and adding a spoonful of filling. Place shells close together in the prepared pan, repeating with the rest until all the shells are stuffed. Pour the remaining marinara sauce over top.
5. Place the stuffed shells in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until the sauce is bubbly. Remove from the oven and serve immediately with Parmesan cheese for topping.

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