Mind Over Matter

Ohh yeaa!! I gotta say this has to be one of the best dishes I have made and amazingly enough it provides plenty of left overs. And you know everything tastes better the next day!

Ingredients: Italian sausage, medium yellow onion, garlic, olive oil, ricotta, jumbo shells, diced can tomatoes, marinara sauce, frozen or fresh spinach. The bottle of Corona is just for me though lol it’s for prep work 😉 If you are using frozen spinach, let the bag sit out on the counter for a while to defrost. The only prep work will be to slice up the sausage links, the onion and garlic.

Step One: Slice up all the sausages first and fire up the pan with some olive oil on medium heat. Cook the sausage on both sides for about 3 mins. I like mine a lil burnt it adds some flavor for me. Now for this recipe I did buy two packages of Italian sausage which worked out perfectly.

Step Two: While the sausages are cooking, you’re going to bring a heavy bottom pot filled with water to a boil. Add some salt once it’s just about boiling then slide those bad boys in. Cook for instructed amount of time as listed on box. Pay attention to these so you know when to drain the pot.

Step Three: Once some of the sausage has cooked, I transfer them into a container and continue to cook the remaining portion. While the rest are still cooking, I sliced up the ones that are done and this will make the dish more suitable so that they are smaller bites. And it’s ok if you see some pink right now because we’re going to place them back into the pan in a bit.

Step Four: *Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees* Now that all of the sausage has been removed from the pan and set aside. Go ahead and add the diced onion and garlic in to cook for 3 mins. No need to add more olive oil because the fat left in the pan from the sausage will be very useful. Once the onion is cooked, put the sausage back in along with the diced tomatoes and frozen/fresh spinach. Cook everything until the spinach is wilted in and the liquid is reduced by at least half. I would give it about 8-10 mins on medium low. This is also the time you want to season with salt & pepper. I also used a lil adobo and paprika.

Step Five: Lastly add in the ricotta cheese and stir it all gently together. Give it about another 3 -4 mins.

Step Six: Okay the last step is going to be assembly. Your oven should be heated by now as I wrote in “Step Four.” Drizzle some olive oil into your baking sheet pan and spread it with your hands so it’s coated evenly. Now scoop some stuffing into each shell and line them up. Then pour over some marinara on top and spread evenly. Bake for 18-20 minutes. You can sprinkle some mozzarella if you like but I opted out. And that’s it, a delicious healthy and filling dinner with lots of left overs!!

Prep: 5 mins  Cook: 45 mins

Ingredients:

• 2 packages of Italian Sausage
• 1 can of diced tomatoes (14oz)
• 1 box Jumbo Shells
• 4 cloves of Garlic
• 1 medium Yellow Onion
• 1/2 cup Ricotta Cheese
• 1/2 bag of Frozen spinach
• 1 bottle Marinara Sauce
• Salt & Pepper
• 1 Tsp Adobo seasoning
• 1 Tbsp Paprika