One time I was in the gourmet foods aisle at Marshalls, or maybe it was Home Goods, and I found a package of naturally colored Italian pasta shells. The pasta is colored with things like paprika and spinach to get different colors. I think they used squid ink to make some of the shells black, because the ingredients listed fish.
You can use a box of manicotti, shells, or whatever pasta you can find to stuff at the store. Since I have canned tomatoes, I made my sauce (left out the meat and used mushrooms), but you can use a jar of sauce. In fact, I usually add an extra jar of sauce even when I make my own because I like stuff extra saucy. If you don’t think you have enough sauce, you can even add 1/2-1 cup of water.
Once in a while, when stuffing the cooked shells, one of the shells will look deformed, kind of folded sideways. In that case I stick the funny shell into a normal shell to hold the shape correctly, and stuff the double shell. If you don’t think you have enough shells, just fill the funny ones separately.
Stuffed Shells
1 package of stuffable pasta, prepared according to package
1 (10 oz) package frozen spinach, prepared according to package
1 small carton ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1 C shredded parmesan or mozzarella
Pasta sauce
Preheat the oven to 350. Squeeze the water out of the drained spinach.
Combine the ricotta, eggs, spinach, and parmesan in a bowl. Spoon the filling into cooked shells.
Place the filled shells in a sprayed 9×13 pan and cover with your sauce. Bake for 30 minutes until bubbly.
