Ingredients:
Conchiglioni (Pasta Shells) –this recipe fills roughly 36-40 La Molisana N313 shells
For the Sauce:
700g Passata Sauce bottle
Blu Estate’s Reserve Quality EVOO
Garlic Clove, peeled and halved
Basil Leaves, to your liking
Water
Sugar (if needed)
Salt & pepper to taste
For the filling:
100g Silverbeet, chopped
100-150g Baby Spinach leaves, left as is or chopped
500g Ricotta cheese
¾ cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded – plus more for assembling the dish
¼ cup Pecorino cheese, grated
Blu Estate’s Reserve Quality EVOO
Garlic clove
1 egg
Pepper
Salt (if desired/dependent on saltiness of the cheeses)
Method:
For the Sauce – Make a basic Napolitana sauce
- To a saucepan add a generous drizzle of Blu Estate’s Reserve Quality EVOO. Allow to heat and add the garlic, allow to become golden. Add the passata sauce and rinse the bottle to collect any leftover sauce and pour into the saucepan. Leave to simmer.
- Once there is a simmer, season with salt and pepper. Add basil leaves to infuse flavour in the sauce. The sauce may require sugar if the passata used was slightly bitter, add accordingly. Turn down the heat to cook on low.
- Allow to cook down slowly and thicken. Stir occasionally and taste to adjust seasonings to your liking. Once ready remove from heat and allow to cool.
For the Filling
- Wash and pat dry your greens. When cleaning the silverbeet make sure you get into all the crevasses and only use the green leaf and the stem within the greenery.
- To a pan add 2tbsp of Blu Estate’s Reserve Quality EVOO, add a garlic clove and allow to become golden and fragrant. Add greens and allow to wilt and become vibrant green in colour. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
- In a separate bowl, add all the cheeses, once the greens have cooled add them into the same bowl, followed by an egg, pepper and salt if desired or needed. Refrigerate until you choose to fill the shells.
For the Pasta
- Bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Add in the shells and allow to cook until al dente.
- Once ready, remove and strain the pasta in a colander.
To Assemble
- Add generous spoonful’s of sauce to the base of an oven-proof dish (until the base is totally coated). Sparingly spread mozzarella cheese.
- Add the filling mixture into a piping bag and pipe mixture into each shell. When placing into the dish make sure the shells fit snug into the dish.
- Once you’ve filled the dish, spoon over more sauce mixture, you can either sparingly cover the shells or make sure there is enough sauce to cover every shell. Add more mozzarella (shredded and chunks) on top.
- Cover with foil and place into a preheated 150oC oven to bake for approximately 40-45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for a further 5-10 minutes to brown the top and ensure the cheese is golden. Enjoy while hot.
*cooking time will vary depending on how long you cooked the pasta originally when it was boiling.
