Saturday, May 28, 2011

Stuffed Shells with Roasted Red Pepper Marinara

Lately its been raining a lot here, even for springtime. So I've been cooking a lot and made up this recipe.  It's a very rare occurrence that I write down a recipe after having just made things up as I went along.  This time I didn't even print out other recipes for inspiration.  I just decided I wanted stuffed shells one day, and I wanted them to be vegan stuffed shells. I wish I could say this made four servings (probably would if you ate normal portions) but my significant other and I polished this off for lunch.  It was awesome.

This was really good.  So good in fact that I forgot to be patient and just piled the shells into a bowl.  The smell is warm, and intoxicating.  The roasted red pepper really hits the spot.

1 box large Shells
1/2 Package Follow Your Heart Mozzarella, shredded

*Cook a box of shells according to the directions on the package minus a minute or two.  You want them to be a bit al dente so after they are baked they are perfectly cooked.  Drain after cooking.

Finished Roasted Red Pepper Marinara


Roasted Red Pepper Marinara
29 ounce can tomato puree
1 red pepper, roasted, skin removed, or 3/4 C pepper pieces from a jar.
4 Garlic Cloves
1 T. Italian Seasoning
1 t. Hot sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste.

1. Put everything into a blender and blend until velvety smooth. 
2. Pour into a small sauce pan and simmer for 10-15 minutes

Had to get a close up of the super creamy "ricotta" stuffed shells.


Tofu  "Ricotta"
1 Package extra firm tofu
4 T. Vegan Mayonaise
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 T. Nutritional Yeast
1 T. Italian Seasoning
1.5 t. Ener- G- Egg Replacer
Salt and Pepper to taste.

1. Drain the tofu and crumble into a bowl.  Add all the other ingredients and use a fork to mix them well.
2.  Using a spoon stuff each shell with the ricotta mixture.  Put any damaged shells into a separate bowl (you can eat them with some leftover sauce later)
3. Line up each stuffed shell in a greased 8x8 pan.  Pack them in kind of tight.
4. Pour the marinara sauce over the finished stuffed shells.  Move the shells around a little bit to make sure that some sauce gets in between them and that each shell is coated in sauce.
5.  Sprinkle shredded mozzarella on top.
6. Bake at 375 F for 20-30 minutes, uncovered.

Someone asked what the package looked like.  Of course now that I have posted this I believe they have changed the packaging. 

Fully Assembled, about to be baked!

1 comment:

  1. Tse shells sound delicious! My mom used to make stuffed shells which I loved, but I don't make often since they are loaded with cheese...this vegan version would be just the thing for me! I will have to try it :)!

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