It’s time to reclaim the kitchen, folks. For the past few years, we’ve put together quite a few educational and inspirational resources on how to cook more. These pumpkin stuffed shells are all about reclaiming the kitchen! Why? Keep reading for our cooking tips that make this stuffed shells recipe delicious and doable.
Reclaiming the kitchen…with pumpkin stuffed shells
This pumpkin stuffed shells recipe is part of our initiative to demystify home cooking by sharing actionable tips, tools and techniques to help you reclaim your kitchen. To do this, we’ve created cozy fall stuffed shells that can work for a dinner with friends or a date night in. The filling is gooey and cozy: savory pumpkin mixed with ricotta and Mozzarella cheeses, with a bit of fresh sage thrown in. The stuffed shells are then baked in our quick tomato sauce, which compliments the filling without overwhelming it. It’s an impressive, showy vegetarian main dish that’s perfect for feeding a crowd. It works as a cozy fall dinner, or even a vegetarian Thanksgiving main dish. While these pumpkin stuffed shells take a bit of time to assemble the components, they’re perfect for a celebration. Best of all, the recipe illustrates a few tools (or “tricks”) that are important for reclaiming the kitchen. Ready to get started?
Trick 1: How to make a quick tomato sauce
Here’s a go-to marinara sauce that’s tasty and takes literally 5 minutes. It’s actually…pizza sauce! Yes, our Homemade Easy Pizza Sauce recipe is perfect for pasta, too. And it’s so, so simple: just pop the ingredients in the blender and whiz it up! Another great option is our Homemade Spaghetti Sauce, which also has meat or veggie crumbles. If you don’t have 5 minutes, you can always use your favorite jar of purchased marinara (just make sure it’s high quality).
Trick 2: How to salt pasta water
If you’re not an Italian grandmother, you may not know this secret. Liberally salt your pasta water! Why? It results in tastier pasta. And did you know that the water should actually taste salty….like salt water? Typically if we’re filling a huge pot, we’ll use about 1 tablespoon of kosher salt. Don’t worry, you won’t actually consume this much salt, as it disperses into the water that is eventually drained out.
Trick 3: How to quickly wilt greens
For this pumpkin stuffed shells recipe, we’ve used one of our favorite tricks to “cook” spinach without really cooking it all. Instead of cooking it on the stovetop and dirtying yet another pan, here’s what you do: use the boiling water from the pasta to wilt the greens! Simply place the spinach leaves in the colander where you’ll drain the pasta. Then pour some of the boiling water from the pot over the spinach. Even about half the water from the pot should be enough to entirely wilt the spinach. Then remove the spinach with tongs to a boil, and finish draining your pasta. If you’re ever using spinach or greens in a pasta, this is a nice way to cook it without dirtying a pan. (We use this technique to cook red peppers in our Peanut Noodles with Napa Cabbage.)
Trick 4: How to quickly chop sage
This pumpkin stuffed shells recipe is infused with fall flavor using the herb sage. Quickly chopping sage can speed up this recipe. This trick can be used for any leafy herb or green:
This pumpkin stuffed shells recipe is…
Vegetarian. For gluten free, use gluten free pasta.
Looking for pumpkin recipes?
Outside of this pumpkin stuffed shells recipe, here are a few of our favorite pumpkin recipes: 5 from 2 reviews
Healthy Pumpkin Bread Pumpkin Waffles Vegan Pumpkin Bread or GF Pumpkin Bread Cozy Pumpkin Oatmeal or Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal Penne with Pumpkin Pasta Sauce Healthy Pumpkin Muffins Vegan Pumpkin Bread Chewy Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies Pumpkin Scones with Maple Cream Baked Gnocchi with Pumpkin Sauce Pumpkin Yogurt Fruit Dip Pumpkin Spice No Bake Energy Bars Pumpkin Pecan Baked Steel Cut Oatmeal Pumpkin Pecan Parfaits Easy Pumpkin Hummus Healthy Pumpkin Mousse Healthy Pumpkin Pancakes All our Healthy Dinner Recipes!
