Stuffed Pasta Shells

I keep watching Sandy d'Amato's 'Kitchen Technician' column in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sunday edition. He consistently comes up some relatively easy to make winners. His latest that we tried last night, Stuffed Pasta Shells, is another one.

The tomato sauce is nicely flavored by sauteéing a couple of Italian sausages in oil and then baking the sauce with the sausages. Sandy removes the sausages to be used for another time. The other time lasted about 15 minutes in my kitchen. Get homemade sausages instead of the commercial type. Your local butcher shop/food market should have them. The sauce recipe calls for two tablespoons of kosher salt which is a bit much for my tastes. 2 teaspoons works for me.

Until I tasted some really great pasta dishes, I always thought an accompaniment of meat was a requirement. The richness of this meal using four different cheeses made into a very tasty stuffing will help get rid of that idea. The recipe states to use whole milk cheeses such as the mozzarella and ricotta. Guess you could use a less fatty cheese but keep in mind that the fat brings a lot of flavor to the table. And How often do you gorge yourself on such a wonderful tasting meal?

Click the above link to get Sandy's original recipe and his comments or the title to get just the recipe for both the sauce and stuffed shells.