With Christmas right around the corner, pasta meals are an easy quick fix on those busy days leading up to the big day. Stuffed Shells are truly the perfect meal to make ahead of time since you can prepare everything but hold off on baking them until you’re ready to eat.
Stuffed shells are a tasty dish that is usually made with ricotta cheese or other types of cheese inside the pasta shells. Tomato sauce is another common ingredient in the dish. However, there are so many ways to jazz it up and one might be surprised just how many unique ingredients one can put into a shell.
I have always loved stuffed pasta shells and over the years I have stuffed them in every way I could imagine. There are endless variations such as using different cheeses and herbs or making some homemade marinara or sun-dried tomato sauce.
There’s a reason surf and turf is often one of the most desired items on a restaurant menu — it’s because meat and fish are the perfect complement to each other! The light flavor of fish and shellfish is a great addition to the richer, heartier flavor of meat.
Today, I’m combining some shrimp and chicken sausage in my filling and topping it with a nice smoky sun-dried tomato parmesan sauce. Should be good!
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- 16 jumbo pasta shells
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 leek, sliced, green & white parts
- 375 gm chicken sausage, casings removed
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 100 gm mushrooms, chopped
- 1/2 tsp Old Bay Seasoning or to taste
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 300 gm WILD, jumbo shrimp, peeled & deveined
- 2 Tbsp white wine
- 2 Tbsp seafood or chicken broth
- 1 1/2 Tbsp flour
- 1/4 cup half & half cream
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp EACH dried oregano & thyme
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 cup sun-dried tomatoes in seasoned oil
- 1 2/3 cups vegetable broth
- 2/3 cup half & half cream
- 100 gm Parmesan cheese, grated
- Green onions, sliced for garnish
Ingredients
Pasta / Filling
Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce
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- Cook pasta shells in a pot of salted boiling water for about 10-12 minutes. Drain well & lay on a wire rack to keep them from sticking together until ready to fill.
- In a large skillet, heat 1 Tbsp oil over medium heat. Add onion & mushrooms; sauté until tender & moisture has evaporated from mushrooms. Add chicken sausage & minced garlic. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add wine & cook until sausage is no longer pink about 4-5 minutes more. Drain well & transfer to a large bowl.
- Peel & devein shrimp; chop into 1/2-inch pieces. In a small bowl, whisk together broth & flour. Set aside.
- In the same skillet, heat remaining 1 Tbsp oil over medium heat. Add shrimp; cook, stirring constantly, until shrimp begins to turn pink. Stir in flour mixture. Add cream, Old Bay seasoning, garlic powder & Italian seasoning; stir until thickened. Remove from heat & stir in sausage mixture. Set aside until ready to use.
- In a skillet, heat oil. Add onion & cook for 2 minutes until it starts to soften. Add garlic, oregano, thyme, paprika & sun-dried tomatoes. Cook for 2 minutes while stirring. Add vegetable broth; bring to a boil & simmer for 5 minutes.
- Stir in cream & parmesan cheese into the sauce. Remove from heat & cool for a few minutes. Pour sauce into food processor & process to a fairly smooth consistency. It will not be completely smooth but that is fine.
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Spread half of the sauce over the bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Divide filling between cooked shells. Lay in rows over sauce. Pour remaining sauce over top carefully covering all the shells.
- Loosely lay a piece of foil paper over baking dish and bake for 45 minutes or until bubbling nicely.
