Baked stuffed shells (conchiglioni) with spinach-ricotta filling, tomato-basil sauce, pecorino and buffalo mozzarella
Vincenzo's Plate · ♥ 6K likes · 200K views · 15 min video
Read about ricotta in the BrightCulinary Book
Timestamp
Ingredients
Method
Techniques
- 3 cloves small garlic cloves
- 1 bunch fresh basil
- passata
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt
- 400 g fresh ricotta
- 3 tbsp grated Pecorino cheese
- 1 whole buffalo mozzarella
- 300 g baby spinach
- 1 whole egg
- nutmeg
- pepper
Add a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil to a pan, crush in the garlic and cook a minute or two until golden, not burning.
Add the passata, stir, season with salt and pepper and tear in the basil by hand. Cover and cook about 20 minutes.
- 1 tbsp rock salt or sea salt
Boil water with 1 tbsp rock or sea salt. Cook the pasta 30 seconds less than the packet time (13 and a half minutes for a 14-minute packet) so it stays al dente.
Put the spinach in a pan and stir so the top cooks too, just over three minutes until very soft and shrunk; no salt needed. Frozen spinach gets the same quick cook.
Wilting the spinach
Put the ricotta in a bowl and break it up for about two minutes so it combines with everything. Mix in all the spinach.
Breaking up the ricotta and adding spinach
Add a little nutmeg, the pecorino, a pinch of salt and a generous amount of pepper; mix. Add the egg and mix again, so the filling does not dry out in the oven.
Drain the pasta and let it rest a couple of minutes until cool enough to handle.
- ½ packet conchiglioni
Fill each shell generously with the ricotta and spinach mix and set them next to each other in the pan; spoon a little sauce into the shells on top of the filling.
Filling and arranging the shells
- pecorino romano
Spoon the remaining tomato sauce over the top, cover with a mountain of pecorino and put a piece of buffalo mozzarella on each shell.
Topping with sauce, pecorino and buffalo mozzarella
Bake uncovered at 180C for 15 minutes, until the mozzarella melts and the top is a little crunchy.
Serve three shells on a spoonful of sauce, with basil leaves for decoration.
Serving three shells on sauce