If you don’t already follow Chrissy Teigen on Instagram, you need to get on board. She’s one of my favorites for her honest mix of food, family, and self-humor in her posts, all being served with pure sarcasm; so great! She has a feed I can definitely get behind.
This summer I saw her story making stuffed shells and they looked unreal. I knew I had to give the recipe a try so here we are. In the time of COVID, I did my usual online grocery order and curbside pickup. Everything I needed was in stock so I was ready to get cooking. PS if you want to watch the full recipe demo from her Insta story, I highly recommend it! I’m also linking her cute (and super-affordable) kid plates by Munchkin here and massive slotted serving spoon, too.
INGREDIENTS
1 box Barilla jumbo shells
30 oz ricotta cheese
1 Tbsp fresh basil
1 large spoonful pesto
1 egg
Salt
Pepper
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup Romano cheese
2 jars of tomato/marinara sauce
DIRECTIONS
I want to start off by saying that if I were you, I would measure out all of your ingredients first to make for quicker mixing. Your shells only take a few minutes to cook and if they sit for too long after they’re done, it will be a hot, gummy, starchy mess and they’ll be tough to work with; you’ve been warned! So, let’s do this…
- Cook pasta for 1/2 of the full cooking time on the box (5-ish minutes)
- Mix ricotta, basil, pesto, egg, salt, pepper, and parmesan/romano cheese
- Coat the bottom of the baking dish (love this one by OXO + lid) with tomato/marinara sauce
- Fill shells with the mixture
- Layer more marinara on top, sprinkle shredded mozzarella and extra parm if you’re into that (so then most likely, yes – add all the cheese)
- Cook at 425 degrees for 30 minutes, checking after 20 minutes
- Pause for a wine break, you worked hard
- When finished cooking, top with extra basil for garnish
Honest review? These shells were ON POINT. Just enough saltiness, lots of creaminess, and the fresh basil from our garden really finished it off. My boys even liked it so you KNOW it’s good. Next time I might add some ground turkey or Italian sausage for a little extra protein but make no mistake, these shells were practically perfect in every way.
My only gripe is that I think she’s being a little generous by calling these “super-easy.” I love to cook, I can slice and dice, sautee, do all that stuff pretty quickly. While I don’t think this recipe is super-hard, I do think it takes some real time and effort to get the job done. With four kids and a husband waiting like I haven’t fed them all day (you prob know what it’s like), my last advice would be to prep what you can in advance and start cooking early enough to avoid all the whining. If all else fails, incorporate more wine throughout the cooking process.
Thoughts?!? Have you tried making these yourself? Know of other great celeb recipes?