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Mmm… Stuffed shells
I dithered about what to do with the ricotta we made yesterday until Mrs J mentioned stuffed shells. Perfect!
I didn’t have that much ricotta so I knew I would have to stretch it out with other stuff. I never measured the ricotta but the recipe I used mentioned 1-1/2 cups could be expected and that was pretty close. I added a cup pf shredded mozzarella, half a cup of shredded Parmesan, an egg, about 1/4 cup of chopped parsley, some red pepper flakes, and some dried oregano and basil with a bit of salt and a grind of black pepper.
These were arranged on top of some tomato sauce in a casserole dish.
Then topped with more tomato sauce, this time with some meat, and the rest of the ricotta mixture and a sprinkle of Parmesan.
I covered it with foil and baked it at 350 for 30 minutes.
Then baked it for another 15 minutes, uncovered.
I will be making more ricotta. It’s easy, and the flavor and texture is better than any I have brought back from the supermarket.\![DSC_2153 [1024x768]](http://whats4dinnersolutions.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/dsc_2153-1024x768.jpg?w=604&h=399)
A Quick Dinner

Busy doing chores and packing for my trip. What to do for dinner? Especially when I’m trying to deplete my refrigerator of fresh foods that will certainly go bad while I’m gone. How about a quick pasta dinner (sorry no pictures, did I mention I was busy packing)?
I put the pasta on to cook. Meanwhile I placed some cleaned baby spinach in a plastic colander, diced up a couple of tomatoes and pulled out some spices. I tossed the tomatoes with olive oil, garlic, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. When the pasta was ready, I drained it in a colander that I held over the spinach colander, wilting the spinach with the hot pasta water. I set the spinach aside and quickly rinsed the pasta with cool water. I drained the spinach well and then tossed the pasta, spinach and tomato mixture together. Toss with some Parmesan and dinner is served.
Baked Pasta
We’ve been eating sammiches and other like things for a while so I thought yesterday, early, that I would make a real meal. It was going to have to be easy because I knew I would be tired. Boy Howdy! I had my truck guy drop two loads off as close to where I needed the rock as he could get. That, unfortunately, was not all that close. I have a little trail through the woods that I like to cruise in my quad, a scenic route and nice to give the pups some exercise. It crosses some gullies that were becoming difficult to cross with the quad, and getting the mower over them was right out. Solution-drop in a couple of culverts. Alas, they just didn’t handle the deluge we had last month. Something like 5″ in one particular nght, and over 2 feet total for the month. Washed away much of the rock. Hell, one spot it washed away the culvert as well, had to drag it back from downstream a ways. Anyway…
I got back in, tired and sweaty. Put the rigatoni on to boil and fried some Italian sausage with a nice Vidalia onion. Tossed in 2 pints of sauce from last years tomato harvest, and went out to the container farm on the patio and plucked some fresh basil, oregano, and thyme.
I can assure you that the dish turned out great! Used plenty of mozzarella and provolone cheese, and went with a nice side of garlic bread. Yum!
He’s back! Sorry-no bells on.
Sorry it’s been so long since I posted. Been having some knee troubles that are depressing me, and we are in the midst of trying to get some concrete poured. The weather isn’t being very cooperative-it looks like we will get a good soaking today, and it may well turn into snow later. We had a spell of warm spring weather last week that had me out tilling and expanding the garden plot and cruising the garden centers looking for sprouts and seeds.
That all seems like last year now.
Good day to stuff some shells with cheese.
Enjoy!
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