Recipe: Stuffed Shells

[Guest guest]

The next dish was in the nature of an experiment. One day, feeling creative but

lazy (the

latter means I didn't want to shop before lunch) I found some giant pasta shells

I had

bought to make a completely different dish and never used. So this is what I

dreamed up:

 

STUFFED SHELLS

 

Giant Pasta Shells (brown rice pasta) for two persons (I used a little over 4 oz

or 120 gm)

1/2 lb extra-firm low-fat tofu

a couple of slices of onion, finely chopped

4 or 5 mushrooms, finely chopped

two handfuls of basil, chopped

a pinch of cayenne, if you like it (we do - more than a pinch!)

salt and pepper to taste

juice of half a lemon

two or so cups home-made tomato pasta sauce (from my freezer - you could use

your

favourite)

handful of torn basil to be added before going in oven

crumby cheezy topping for dish for baking (or use veggie or vegan parmesan or

nothing)

 

I cooked the shells and, meanwhile, heated the oven to 350 F, crumbled the tofu

into a

bowl and set the onion and mushrooms to soften and cook in a little water while

I chopped

the basil and defrosted the pasta sauce.

 

When the onion and mushrooms were cooked, I added them to the tofu along with

the

chopped basil, lemon juice, seasonings and zapped the whole thing with the wand

blender, to form a kind of creamy ricotta-like mixture.

 

I spooned the mixture into the shells, added a few pieces of torn basil leaves

to each

stuffed shell, poking them into the mix with a naughty finger.

 

In a flat baking dish, I added a little of the pasta sauce - to just cover the

bottom - lined

up the shells as prettily as I could, added the rest of the sauce and sprinkled

my own

cheezy crumby mix (of equal parts cashews, crumbs and nutritional yeast all

ground

together with oregano, paprika and pepper) over the top.

 

I baked in the oven for around 25 minutes covered, then removed the cover for a

few

minutes at the end.

 

I had never but NEVER stuffed shells before, and these were dead simple and very

nice!

They disappeared so fast that it was all I could do to snap a blurry photo

before they were

consumed! There were no leftovers. The dh is already hinting at more, and he'll

be at my

elbow so that he can make them himself next time round!

 

That blurry photo can be admired here on my blog:

http://beanvegan.blogspot.com/2007/10/zucchini-hash-with-mushrooms-potatoes.html

 

Love, Pat