Leftover Ingredient Stuffed Shells

Those of you who suffered through my cooking pre-Mastering and Joy know that I love to experiment. I think the height of cooking is looking into your cupboard, realizing there is no recipe that you know which work with the ingredients, and making a great meal anyway. Sometimes it works out great and you create a delicious new dish....sometimes you create a monster.

Last night I was too tired to go to the grocery store (honest reason: really I just hate going when I know I have to go back in the next 2 days), so I decided to see if my skills in leftover creations had improved. The main thing I wanted to get rid of was a huge tub of light ricotta cheese that I bought when I thought I needed 2 cups of ricotta, when I really only needed 2 tablespoons. Therefore, it seemed like an Italian kind of night. I also had some medium sized pasta shells, so I settled on stuffed shells.

Relevant sidenote on some family history: Before Texas, my family lived in Washington DC where my parents ran several restaurants. The one I went to most frequently was Gina's, a classic Italian joint. My favorite dish was the marina stuffed shells (with a dessert of baked Zeppole, of course!). Soooo good. I could, and often did, eat it day after day. Since I have grown up, however, I kind of fell out with Italian food. Nothing tasted as good as what I remembered as a kid, and in the end I'd rather get my carbs in delicious French food. Thus, these leftover stuffed shells had big shoes to fill.

Here's the recipe I came up with:
2 eggs
2 cups (minus 2 TBS) ricotta cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese grated
1/2 cup parmesan
Package of mid-sized jumbo shells (not the huge restaurant sized ones)
6 pearl onions, pealed but not minced (another thing I had just sitting in my fridge)
1/2 TBS italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 jar spaghetti sauce

First step, as always, was preheat oven, here to 350. I then cooked the shells in boiling water for about 10 minutes and drained them to let them cool. Next I beat the eggs, then mixed in the ricotta, 3/4 cup mozzarella and the parmesan. I then added the spices - I never really measure spices, I just season to taste, but above is my best guess. It ended up being a lot of italian seasoning and garlic salt, less pepper. Once the shells were cooled, I put the cheese mix into them, then laid them in a baking dish seal side down. Next I sprinkled a little of the mozzarella cheese in the dish to make sure it got nice and gooey. Then, I placed the pealed pear onions throughout the dish, and poured on the sauce. Lastly, I sprinkled the rest of the mozzarella cheese on the top and put it in the oven for 30 minutes.

Result:

3.5 out of 5 on Yum scale

Things I would change:
1. Up the temp to 375 to make sure the cheese on top got a little browned.
2. Make the sauce myself: 1 can diced tomatoes, a few cloves of garlic, maybe some mushrooms, and the pearl onions. Sauté in pan for 15 minutes, starting with onions, then adding other ingredients.
3. More pearl onions. And if I wasn't making sauce I'd put them in the water with the boiling shells to make sure all of them cooked/infused their flavor fully.

Even without the changes it turned out pretty well. The flavors weren't complex or anything, but it didn't take too much time, tasted good and had a comforting feel to it. The best part is, whatever veggies you have left over you can easily throw into the dish. While it did not live up to my childhood expectations completely, if I ever buy way too much ricotta cheese, I will definitely be making this dish again.