Cheesy Stuffed Shells

Hey, what's up? Today, I'm going to show you guys a dish that's just as cozy as a pan of lasagna, but it's not nearly as much of a gut bump, and in my opinion, it tastes better and is easier to make. Of course, I'm talking about stuffed shells. To get started, we're going to make some creamy, sweet ricotta cheese. Making it is easier than you think, and the results are way better than anything you can buy. I'm going to convince you to give it a try. To make it, I'll pour 2,000 grams or a half gallon of whole milk into a saucepan, along with 200 grams of heavy cream and 15 grams of salt. Next, I'll turn my burner on to medium low, and then I'll very slowly heat this milk to 190F while stirring it frequently. You want to keep this moving because the milk easily sticks to the bottom of the pot, and if that happens, it'll burn and make the ricotta taste bitter. After five to eight minutes of stirring and waiting, this milk is up to about 190F. Next, I'll kill the heat, then add in 100 grams of white distilled vinegar, pouring it around the pot to distribute it evenly. Next, I'll drop in my whisk or a spatula and very carefully stir that vinegar in without agitating things too much. Hard stirring breaks the delicate cheese curds. Now, I'll set a 15 minute timer, then I'll let this fresh cheese sit so it can slowly, gently coagulate. Next, I'll grab a package of cheesecloth that I folded in half four times, then lay it into some kind of straining device. I'm using a salad spinner here because it's nice and deep, but a colander sitting inside of a bowl would also work. 15 minutes later, this ricotta has separated into set curds and whey. It should look like clouds sitting in a yellowish broth that doesn't look anything like pee. By the way, if your ricotta isn't cleanly broken like mine is, add in a tiny splash more vinegar and heat it again to 190F. That will definitely break it. Next, I'll use a big ladle or a one cup measure to scoop the cheese out of the way and carefully lower it into the cheesecloth to strain. At this point, the cheese curds are super tender, and if you're too hard on them, they're Now I'll just keep on scooping and dropping the curds into the cheesecloth, and once most of these things are moved over into the basket, I will then carefully pour the rest, making sure not to splash or drop it from a height. Then I'll lift out this draining basket, leaving all of the drained whey behind. I'll set the basket aside, then discard the whey, then I'll drop the cheese basket back into the bowl, and from here, I'll let the cheese drain for about 20-30 minutes while I cook everything else. Next, I'll take a heavy bottom pot full of 4-5 quarts of water and drop it on the stove to bring up to a boil. Once it's ripping, I'll add in a few handfuls of salt, then a large box of shell pasta. At the store, they'll be called the jumbo shells, and a box is 340 grams. In the box, you'll get about 30-34 shells, which is more than we need, but inevitably some of these are going to tear during cooking, so we'll cook a few extras. And after about 6 minutes, when I check back, the pasta is just about al dente, meaning it still has some bite to it. That's ideal, because pasta that's fully tender at this point is going to be overcooked once we bake it, and fully tender pasta rips when you try to put stuffing inside. Once the pasta water's drained off, I'll hit these shells with a little bit of olive oil, then I'll give them a gentle toss to make sure they don't stick together. From here, I'll set the pasta aside to cool, then I'll grab two 3-ounce packages, or about 160 grams of sliced prosciutto. To prep these up, I'll stack all the slices on top of each other, then grab my knife and cut the slices down into about quarter inch strips. I want to break this ham down into tiny little pieces, and this is the best process that I found for doing that without a food processor. Okay, once the strips of ham are cut down, I'm going to turn 90 degrees, then chop or mince those into tiny little pieces that are about the size of a bacon bit. And once the prosciutto is all minced up, I'm going to head over to the stove, where I've got my dutch oven heated over medium heat. Next I'll drop in a 3-second squiggle of olive oil, and then all of my chopped prosciutto. Next I'll jump in with the spoon and mix this up, and fry the ham for about 90 seconds to render out some of its fat and cook off some of the moisture. Avoid frying this until it's crispy though, because that's going to bring crunchiness to the filling and stand in the way of the creamy soft ricotta, which is actually the star of this dish. Once the ham is sizzled up but still soft, I'm going to add in 15 grams of minced garlic, then stir that in and fry for about a minute or so, again over medium heat. And once this garlic is smelling good and just starting to take on a little bit of color, Next I'll add in an 8-ounce bag or 225 grams of spinach, then stir that in to wilt it. I'm going to cook this for about 2 minutes in total, or until the spinach is softened and most of the water is cooked off. From here I'm going to move this spinach-ham mixture over to a cutting board, then run my knife through it 5-6 times to break the spinach down even more. Bonus points if you wanted to take a paper towel and squeeze out any extra water that might be sitting inside the leaves. Next let's cook the spicy marinara sauce that will eventually coat the shells. For that, first I'm going to grab a paper towel and wipe out the spinach-ham residue. Then in goes a 3 second squirt of olive oil, then 100 grams of grated onion, 15 grams of garlic, a strong pinch of salt, then I'm going to jump in and stir to combine and sweat this for 5 minutes until tender. By the way, when I say grated, I mean an onion that was ravaged on the large holes of a box grater. This allows the onions to melt into the sauce easier and it allows them to get softer faster so we don't have to stew this sauce all afternoon. After 5 minutes, the garlic and onion are getting softened and smelling awesome, so next I'll add in 25 grams of chopped Calabrian chilies, then stir those in and fry for 2-3 minutes. If you don't have Calabrians or you can't find them, I would say sub in a strong pinch of chili flakes instead. Once the Calabrians have added their fruity flavor to the party, I'm going to add in 75 grams or a half can of tomato paste, then stir that in and fry for 1 minute to open up the canned tomato flavor and to get some more roasty flavors going on. I usually cook paste until it's got a bit of a rusty orange color. Next I'll add in a splash of water to loosen up any stuff that might be stuck to the bottom of the pot, then in goes one 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes, 7 grams of salt, and 20 grams of sugar. I'll stir that to combine, bring the sauce up to a simmer over medium heat, and cook for 5 minutes while I thank Trade Coffee for sponsoring this video. I'm not a coffee snob or anything like that, but I do want my coffee experience to be better than just fine or passable. I want it to be great, which is why I subscribed to Trade. Trade believes that making great coffee at home shouldn't require fancy equipment or a crazy 10 step process. They believe it just takes great coffee. Trade partners with some of America's top independent roasters to deliver freshly roasted specialty coffee directly to your door, as fast or as slow as you can drink it. I've tried so many coffees from Trade at this point I really can't pick a favorite, but my current daily driver is this Nightcap decaf from Joe Coffee based out of Long Island. It's super flavorful and it's got some sweet spicy notes, but it's not so intense that you can't drink 3-4 cups. Trade's full octane coffees are also a pure delight. Lauren routinely drinks those over ice. Don't settle for coffee that's just fine, you guys. Head to drinktrade.com slash brian to get your first bag of great coffee for free. If you're not fully satisfied, they'll replace it. Again, that's drinktrade.com slash brian to get your first bag for free with any new subscription. After 5 minutes at a low simmer, I'll kill the heat on the marinara, then add in 10-ish grams of chiffonaded basil, then stir that in to perfume the sauce with its sweet herbal flavor. Then I'll give the sauce a taste. Yeah, that's epic. It's spicy, tart, sweet, and very intense. It's gonna pair with the creamy ricotta cheese perfectly. Speaking of cheese, after draining for 20-30 minutes, this ricotta is ready to party. Compared to store-bought, this stuff is firmer, moister, smoother, and much richer. Lauren, you gotta come taste this ricotta. Taste it. It's good. It's really good. Finish it. No, it's super delicious, it's creamy, it's sweet, and it's so much better than what you can buy. Yeah, that's very good. If you're wondering what I don't like about store-bought ricotta, it's wet and grainy and has bad taste. Or no taste at all. So if you have an extra 30-40 minutes and you really want to have something special, try this ricotta. Now, I'll drop this ricotta into a medium bowl, and if you're using store-bought, sub in 450 grams or one pound's worth. Then in goes my chopped spinach-ham mixture, 100 grams of heavy cream, 75 grams of shredded mozzarella, 75 grams of grated parmesan, and at least 20 cranks of fresh cracked black pepper. Lastly, I'll add in one large egg to help bind the mixture and to help it stick to the shells. Then I'll jump in and stir until everything is well combined. Now, let's put this stuff in a shell. For that, I'll grab roughly 2-3 tablespoons of filling and slide it into an open shell while using the back of the spoon to hold the shell open. Then I'll use my thumb to capture the cheese and push it down into the middle, and from there I'll use my fingers to tuck the cheese in and form the whole thing into a tidy, tight little package. Next, I'll drop between 18 and 24 shells into my sauce. The final number depends on the brand of the shell that you're using and how much water that pasta absorbed during cooking. The last step before baking is to top the shells with a lib amount of grated parmesan. Next, the pot goes into a 425F oven with a lid on it to bake for 15 minutes. 15 minutes later, when I open this oven, I'm going to carefully remove the lid. At this point, you can see that we've got bubbling sauce and some melty cheese, but this dish needs a little bit more direct heat. The dutchie goes back in, lid off this time, to bake for another 15 minutes. Going lidless here allows the sauce to reduce a little bit and it starts to brown the cheese on top, kind of like pizza. And after about 30 minutes in total, it's time to pull out the shells. Guys, you gotta see these things, oh my gosh. Look at that little thing smothered in sauce, oh my, it's asking for it. The last little flourish here is to dust this dish one more time with grated parm. To serve, I'll scoop about 3 or 4 per person onto a plate, then hit with more parm, because more parm is always more good. Finally, I'll drip on some spicy finishing olive oil to bring a little bit more fat. You guys, this dish is slash was severely underrated by me. I knew it was going to be good, but I had no idea that it would be this good. I mean, who doesn't want to eat that? It's hard to overstate how good this ricotta is. It's creamy, it's smooth, it's a little bit sweet, and it's full of mozzarella and parmesan. And prosciutto. There's a perfect amount of sauce here, it's super robust, it's thick, it sticks to the noodles, and it unifies into an eating experience that's very similar to lasagna, but lighter and probably more enjoyable. If you guys liked this video, you're going to love this other video for Grandma Pizza. It's a sheet pan pizza that comes together in about one hour, and it is a real crowd pleaser. Check it out, and I'll see you there.