Around The Kitchen Table: Super Saturday Nite Dinner

This was something I made several weeks ago. Its defiantly not a quick and easy weeknight meal. There are some ways that you could make this a little bit easier. First you could use no boil lasagna noodles. I really dont care for the taste of those so I use the regular kind. Another way would be to mix it all together like a ziti instead of layering it. I also had cannolis. So so good.... here it is!

Spinach and Mushroom Stuffed Shells with Cream Sauce

Start off by cooking on low a container of crimini or baby bella mushrooms. They have alot more flavor than button mushrooms and since this is one of the main ingredients I wanted to have as much of that flavor as possible. Cook this in about 2-3 Tbps of butter. You can leave it on low while fixing the other ingredients.

After you start your mushrooms start the water for your shells or if making this into ziti the ziti noodles you will use. This is the longest step so start it after the mushrooms so you arent waiting for the pasta to cook.

Meanwhile start a 'bechemel sauce' thats a fancy frenchy way of saying...white sauce. This is a basic sauce you can use to start sauce for home made mac and cheese or the scalloped potatoes I made a while ago. Start with one stick of butter and a half a cup of flour. As that starts to thicken add about a cup of milk. Keep it on low and dont wander off and txt your friend about something or check your facebook status. Or i dont know, make sure your kids arent killing each other. Because this will boil over in a heartbeat. And its a mess. So stay put. This will thicken and you can add milk as needed to desired consitancy. This is to go over the top of the stuffed shells.

Next come the filling. I had defrosted one package of frozen spinach and squeezed it dry. Then i added it to half a container of sorrento ricotta cheese. Along with 2 eggs and a handful or parm cheese. And some garlic powder. Mix this up

Add in the mushrooms. By now it smells amazing. And I love the colors in the filling. Yum

After the shells are cooked (I usually undercook them slightly so they arent totally over cooked coming after they come out of the oven) Put a heaping tablespoon of filling in each shell. This is messy. And the shells will tear but it wont matter because it will taste so delicious. Put some sauce on the bottom of a large glass dish, fill the shells until the dish is filled.

Now its time for some more yummyness. Yup thats right yummyness. My new favorite word. Anyway. Cover the top of the shells with the remaining white sauce. And some more parm cheese. and some shredded mozz cheese. If you wanted to make this as a baked ziti you could mix the filling in with the ziti noodles and then cover it with the sauce and cheese. Of corse I forgot an 'after pic' but it really didnt look much different. Just hot and slightly brown and bubbling. This dish is rich and delish and obviously not light on calories. If you wanted to cut that a bit you could use a red marinara sauce instead of the white sauce.

Time for Dessert!

While I was doing all the other steps I also made cannolis. I used the remaining ricotta cheese and confectioners sugar and choc chips. Also about a teaspoon of vanilla. The amount of powdered sugar totally depends on how sweet you want it. There's no magic formula. Just add til it tastes just right!