By Danielle Capalbo, News Staff
Stuffed shells top my list of Italian-American comfort foods. Gratuitously cheesy and saucy, they require enough effort in the kitchen to feel like an authentic culinary accomplishment, without intimidating a beginner. They’re the down-home macaroni and cheese of Little Italy, more or less.
A couple of nights ago, I made some with divine inspiration from my grandmother, a regular magician in the kitchen.
Her power may reside in that trusty red wine elixir, but odds are it stems from her upbringing instead.
She spent her life in southern Westchester, N.Y., where eels swam in the kitchen sink all morning before they were cooked, dinner was served mid-afternoon to a veritable tribe on Sundays and fresh pasta came from shops on Arthur Avenue.
The result is a real knack for knockout cooking, from unparalleled lasagna to broccoli rabe, baccala and all sorts of dishes fra diablo.
A lifetime spent perfecting her stovetop skills also negated any real need for a cookbook. Instead my grandma relies on a keen memory and plenty of eyeballed, ‘I’ve made this a million times,’ measurements.
For posterity’s sake though, I had her spell out instructions for stuffed shells. One of my favorites, and one of the simplest.
Even after a draining day of work and classes, the move-by-move guide below should make dinner possible. And you’ll have plenty of leftovers.
‘
‘
The shells
What you need:
1 box of jumbo shell pasta
2 lbs of ricotta cheese
a small ball of fresh mozzarella
a small chunk of parmesan
1 egg
fresh parsley
garlic powder
salt and pepper
1. Empty the ricotta cheese into a medium-sized bowl. Crack an egg into the bowl, too, then sprinkle some chopped parsley, garlic powder and salt. Grate in some fresh parmesan and mozzarella to your liking. (You could save yourself the’ slight trouble by purchasing these cheeses pre-shredded, of course). Stir everything together until it’s creamy, then stuff it in the fridge.
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boil. Add your shells, but don’t let them cook too long ‘- just until they’re al dente. Drain the water, rinse the pasta and grab yourself a baking pan large enough to hold them all.
3. Line the baking pan with your homemade sauce. Before transferring the shells to their near-final nestling place, cup each in your palm and stuff it with about a tablespoon of’ your ricotta mixture.
4. When the shells are in place in the baking pan, pour some sauce over the top using a ladle or something like it. Top the dish with a bit of grated parmesan, cover it with foil and bake for about thirty minutes at 350 degrees.
The sauce
What you need:
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 small can tomato sauce
fresh garlic
basil
oregano
1/2 teaspoon sugar
olive oil
salt and pepper
1. Cut up some of your fresh garlic and let it simmer gently with olive oil in a medium-sized pot. Make sure it doesn’t burn, or you’ll lose all the rich flavor.
2. Add the can of crushed tomatoes, the small can of tomato sauce, about a quarter can of water (not too much!), an eyeballed amount of oregano, basil, salt and pepper and sugar.
3. Cover this mixture simmer for about an hour at low heat. Seems like a long wait, but think of all you can do in the meantime. Also, by the time you’re ready to douse your shells with homemade sauce, your kitchen will smell the way the Food Network looks.
‘
‘
Hungry Husky Tips:
Sugar might seem like a strange ingredient when concocting a savory meal, but by adding a small dose to your sauce, you’ll offset the bitterness of crushed tomatoes.
When you finally do pour the sauce over your stuffed pasta, be scrupulous. Too much of a good thing can leave you with soft ‘-‘ possibly soggy ‘-‘ shells.