Pasta Shells with Spicy meaty Red sauce

By Jen -
Bringing flavors together in this dish was fairly straightforward. I have found  with Italian cooking that if the components like red sauce or a filling taste good - the overall dish usually is great. I know how I like my red sauce to taste: fresh and sharp with that tang of good herbs and garlic. I want the meat - whether sausage or ground - to be seasoned well. Fillings: use good pesto or fresh basil. Fresh cheeses. Good pasta - homemade if possible. Cooking outside of my own markets on the other side of the world means I have to try different products to get the right fresh flavors - and it has turned out to be pretty straightforward. For me, Italian cooking will aways mean using the best farm to table ripe vegetables and fresh ingredients. I'm learning that this is true for any cuisine.
And when one sees large pasta shells at the store - one must do something with them, right?

1. Prepare the Red Sauce and the Shell Filling
  • Red Sauce: Here in Malaysia, I go with what I can find. 
    • Pkg of Sweet Chicken Italian & Cheese sausage (near fav Breakfast sausage) - defrost and squeeze sausage out of casings into a bowl.
    • 1 jar tomato sauce - passata - ground fresh tomato sauce
    • 1 smaller jar Barilla Arrabbiata sauce (I found this at Jaya) - this is a spicier red sauce that you can also make from scratch
    • 1/2 yellow onion, cut finely
    • 3 garlic cloves, minced
    • olive oil
    • 1-2 tsp dried oregano
    • 2 tsp dried Italian herbs (at home I would make a bouquet garni with fresh herbs)
In a sauce pan, add some olive oil and then onions - you want to soften the onions, not over brown them. Add a little salt and pepper. As the onions get translucent, add the garlic and sauté for a couple minutes. Add the sausage and start breaking the sausage up as much as you can as it starts to cook. Keep breaking up the sausage and stirring up the garlic and onion. This is not over high heat - you are just trying to get the sausage into smaller pieces. Add Passata - wash the jar with about a cup of water and add that to the mix too. Add half the jar of Arrabbiata sauce. Cover, turn to simmer and stir occasionally.
  • Pasta Shell filling
    • Lemnos spreadable Ricotta Cheese - or fresh - whatever looks good. About 250g
    • two eggs
    • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
    • 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
    • 1 container of spinach - blanched with hot water and extra liquid pressed out, patted as dry as possible and then chopped. Basically - getting as much liquid out as possible
    • 1/4 - 1/3 cup panko bread crumbs to thicken it up a bit - depends on how big the eggs are or how running the ricotta is.
    • a dollop of pesto - optional
Combine all ingredients and leave in fridge until ready to assemble.

With filling and sauce ready, heat up a stock pot of water, liberally adding salt for the pasta. 

How many shells to cook is determined by how big your dish is although it is fine to have extra - it IS pasta, after all. I'd suggest putting the dry pasta in the dish and see how many it fits in one layer. The pasta will grow a bit with cooking, but also be more pliable. 

Add the shells when water is boil - turn down heat so nothing overflows. These shells take about ten minutes to get to al-dente readiness. Check them - its better for them to have a little bite to them rather than overdone - they are going to go in the oven.

Strain pasta shells out and shake/flip around to get all the water out. As they cool, pull them apart so they don't stick to each other. 

Layer the bottom of the pan with the chicken red sauce, reserving some for the top. Start filling the shells with the cheese filling and add this layer to your dish. Watch how much filling you use so that you have enough for the whole dish. The recipe above was enough for one 9x11 pan of medium shells.

After the shells are filled, cover each shell with the left over arrabbiata sauce - and sauce from the reserved red sauce you've made. Sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan on top. Bake @ 350* until cheese on top is bubbling and starting to brown. Let cool before eating.

*Malaysia oven: start with both top/bottom heat element at 150c for 15 minutes and then switch to just top heat element bake for another 5. These instructions are rather specific to the oven in faraway child's Kuala Lumpur kitchen.

 

 

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