Italian night!

So, last night was Italian night at my house. A friend had made me some stuffed shells recently from a Campbell's cookbook (they own Prego spaghetti sauce, no soup involved!), so I decided to make those because I had some frozen broccoli in my fridge. I also made garlic bread (out of the freezer section), caesar salad (out of a bag) and low-fat tiramisu (recipe to follow).

I used this recipe, but I will make notes on where I changed stuff. Off the top of my head, I doctored up the sauce and used twice as much ricotta cheese and broccoli. I think the shells would've been pretty skimpy if you followed their instructions. Edited to add: I cooked extra shells, at least 24, maybe 30. This recipe calls for 18. That'd be three each, which is about what everyone ate at my house...So, only use the red notes if you are doubling!


Broccoli and Cheese Stuffed Shells

Rated:
Submitted By: Campbell's Kitchen
Prep Time: 25 Minutes
Cook Time: 25 Minutes
Ready In: 50 Minutes
Servings: 6
"Large pasta shells stuffed with creamy cheese and chopped broccoli are laced with seasoned tomato sauce and baked until piping hot."
Ingredients:
1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese - use the big tub of ricotta
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped broccoli, thawed and well drained - I used the big bag of frozen broccoli too
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
18 jumbo shell-shaped pasta, cooked and drained - Oh, that explains it all. I made at least 24 shells, maybe 30. Oops.
1 (25.75 ounce) jar Prego® Chunky Garden Combination Italian Sauce - see below for how I did the sauce
Directions:
1.
Stir the ricotta cheese, broccoli, 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese, (use whole cup if you double the recipe like I did) Parmesan cheese and black pepper in a medium bowl. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the cheese mixture into each shell.
2.
Spread 1 cup of the pasta sauce in a 13x9x2-inch shallow baking dish. Place the filled shells on the sauce. Pour the remaining pasta sauce over the shells. Sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella cheese.
3.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 25 minutes or until hot.

Laura's sauce recipe:

1 lb ground sirloin (8% fat)
1 can mushrooms
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 large jar tomato and basil prepared pasta sauce (the small jar isn't enough once you add the other stuff to it - I think mine was the 28 ounce size)
1/3 cup dry red wine (I used pinot noir)
sprinkle of dried Italian seasoning, parsley and basil

Brown the beef with the mushrooms and garlic. Drain any excess fat you might have off the meat. Add sauce, wine and herbs and allow to heat through.

You can make the shells up the night before and then just add the sauce and bake them the next day. I also threw a couple more handfulls of mozarella on the top while they were baking.