Stuffed Shells w/Caesar Salad

I had some leftover ricotta cheese in the frig that I needed to use up and decided to make some stuffed shells, something I hadn't made in years. I'm so glad I did, they really turned out good and it made enough to freeze half of it. I also made the Caesar Salad with the dressing I made earlier (yum).....and so simple: chopped romaine with homemade croutons, Parmesan cheese, and a bit more coarsley black pepper.

Now, I just kind of winged the recipe, looked up several on-line and kinda combined them. So the recipe below will list what I used. I cooked 6 oz of jumbo shells, which came out to be 24 shells. So I thought I'd end up with 2 dishes of a dozen stuffed shells. WRONG!!! I forgot how the shells tend to fall apart (even when cooking al dente), but they did and I ended up with 14 good shells. It actually worked out perfectly. I had just enough stuffing for 14 shells, and put 7 stuffed shells in two small oven-proof dishes, one went in the freezer. I cooked the one dish for 45 minutes at 350 and it came out perfectly.

SPINACH AND CHEESE STUFFED PASTA SHELLS

6 oz jumbo pasta shells (about 24) cooked, drained, and layed out on waxed paper so they didn't stick

Mix together:

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 (10 oz) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and very well drained

1/2+ cup Parmesan, divided

1 cup shredded mozzarella, divided

1/4 cup egg beaters, or 1 beaten egg

1/4 tsp garlic salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tsp dried basil

1 jar spaghetti sauce

Line two small baking dishes with spaghetti sauce. Mix all the other ingredients (just half of the Parmesan and mozzarella) and fill the shells. Mix remaining spaghetti sauce with remaining cheeses. Spread over stuffed shells. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. You can save a bit of the cheeses and top the dish with them, then broil for a few minutes to give it a baked, cheesy topping.