The monsoons have finally announced themselves con brio. I always believe that this is the season when Mumbai is the most beautiful, dark and blooding, yet relentlessly continuing with its insatiable gusto and contagious energy. I painstakingly planned this meal nearly a week in advance, ordering the pasta shells, pelati, ricotta and mozzarella online via foodesto, and prepping myself for the task ahead, by reading and re-reading the recipe to familiarize myself with the technique and the sequence, because quite frankly, I’ve never made this before! But once I started tasting the ingredients separately before assembling, it was abundantly clear that this symphony of flavours, and the balance of creaminess, savoury and acid from the tomatoes, was going to be a staple special dinner
Ingredients:
- 20 jumbo pasta shells
- 1-1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp fresh garlic, minced
- 4 cups (packed) fresh spinach leaves, roughly-chopped
- 200gm pack ricotta cheese
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
- 1 tbsp fresh basil, finely chopped
- 1 tsp sea salt/ fleur de sel (to taste)
- 1/2 tsp freshly-ground black pepper (to taste)
-
1-1/4 cups marinara sauce
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 200*c . Cook the pasta al dente, according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
- Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a medium non stick pan over medium heat, add the garlic and cook until it begins to brown. Add the spinach and cook, stirring occasionally, until the leaves begin to wilt but are still bright green, about 2 minutes. The spinach should be reduced by half. Remove from the heat and let cool.
- In a mixing bowl, stir together the spinach, ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, basil and salt and pepper until thoroughly combined. Pour 1/2 cup of the marinara sauce into the bottom of a shallow 8-inch by 8-inch shallow baking dish. Stuff each pasta shell with a generous amount of the spinach and ricotta mixture, and place in the baking dish.
- Cover with the remaining sauce and bake covered with aluminum foil for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until the top begins to brown and the sauce begins the bubble, another 10-15 minutes. Serve warm with a dusting of Parmesan.
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Feedback:
- It is of utmost importance that you monitor your pasta very closely, as the second they go beyond al dente, the process of stuffing them and handling them will become quite unpleasant.
- A good marinara needs 800gm of pelati (italian plum tomatoes), 1-2 tiny shallots and 1 garlic, minced along with fragrant herbs such as rosemary, basil and oregano to lift the sauce. Ensure balance by adding some sugar to alleviate the acidity of the tomatoes, and of course course salt and pepper (I prefer the Snapin course pepper, which is perfectly full flavoured and robust).
- If you don’t have fresh herbs on hand, for the sauce I would recommend the Snapin rosemary, basil and oregano (to taste) but for the spinach mixture, make the effort to get some fresh basil, it’ll go an insanely long way rounding off the flavours perfectly.
