Cheese Stuffed Pasta Shells

How to prepare cheese stuffed pasta shells

1. Tomato sauce: Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the finely chopped onion until soft. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Pour in the wine, 100ml water, and oregano and bring to a boil a few times. Add the passata, salt, and pepper. Simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes, until the sauce has reduced. At the end, turn off the heat and add the very finely chopped basil leaves and parsley.
   * the tomato sauce can be prepared in advance, even several days ahead and in larger quantities; it keeps for about 1 week in the refrigerator; you can store it in the bottle that contained the passata
   ** the amount of sauce is larger than needed for this recipe; you can use the rest on pizza, pasta, mozzarella meatballs, gnocchi, or instead of ketchup...
2. Filling: Put the fresh cheese/ricotta, grated mozzarella, and parmesan in a bowl. Add the egg, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. Finally, incorporate the finely chopped herbs.
3. Put the pasta to boil in a large pot with plenty of hot salted water. Cook according to the package instructions (it took 14 minutes for me). Drain and let them cool for a few minutes until they can be handled.
4. In an oven-safe pan, put enough tomato sauce to cover the bottom well.
5. Fill the pasta with the prepared filling using a teaspoon or a piping bag. I fit about 1 1/2 teaspoons in each piece. Place the stuffed pasta in the pan, on the tomato layer. Put a teaspoon of tomato sauce on each. Pour about 100ml water in the pan (I did this because the sauce was very reduced and I needed it to be a bit more liquid). Cover the pan with aluminum foil.
7. Bake at 200°C (390°F) for 20 minutes.
8. Remove the aluminum foil, sprinkle with the 20g parmesan (or more if desired) and bake again for 10 minutes (without foil this time) until the parmesan melts.
9. Let it cool for 10 minutes and then serve.

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