Pumpkin & Ricotta Stuffed Shells
Recipe Type: Main Dish
Cuisine: Italian, Pasta bake
Author:
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8-10
A cheesy, gooey pasta recipe to try out this holiday season! These jumbo shells are stuffed with a mixture of pumpkin, spinach, and ricotta, garnished with just a touch of cinnamon and nutmeg and drizzled with alfredo! An easy weeknight dinner for any time of year (if you can find pumpkin, that is!).
Ingredients
- 1 box jumbo pasta shells
- 1 can pureed pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling!)
- 1 10 oz box frozen, chopped spinach, thawed and drained
- 1 32 oz. carton of ricotta cheese
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 jar good Alfredo sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 deg.
- Boil water. Add shells and cook according to package directions, minus 1-2 minutes or when shells are al dente.
- Drain pasta and cool completely.
- Meanwhile, drizzle about 1/2 cup Alfredo sauce in the bottom of a 9×13 casserole dish or disposable roasting pan sprayed with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, spinach, ricotta, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly.
- When shells are cool enough to handle, fill each one with about 2 tbsp pumpkin ricotta mixture.*
- Line up stuffed shells into bottom of the casserole dish or roasting pan. Sprinkle generously with 1 to 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese. Drizzle remaining Alfredo sauce on top.
- Cover with foil. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes covered, then remove foil and bake uncovered for remaining 15 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.
- Garnish with pumpkin seeds if desired! Serve with a side salad. Happy Pumpkin Season, ya’ll! 🙂
Notes
*You can also spoon the filling into a large Ziplock storage bag, cut off one of the corners, and “pipe” the filling into each individual shell, but I found this to be way more work than it needed to be (and actually a lot messier!). A plain old spoon worked just fine for me.
Claire Tastes 
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