Great Cooks Out There - Need Your Ideas or Inspiration!

Updated on January 31, 2012
T.C. asks from New Haven, CT
13 answers

Tonight for dinner I made stuffed pasta shells with a creamy tomato sauce. Yummmm.... it was excellent if I don't say so myself. I cook all the time and I sure do love good food, but I rarely devote this much time to a meal. But, I didn't post this to brag:) Here's where you come in:
I have a decent amount of the stuffing mixture leftover, and it was so delicious that I would hate for it to go to waste. I made it with ricotta, spinach, bacon, some shredded asiago cheese, one egg, and a little parsley and s&p. It is not as heavy on the ricotta as you might think. The only thing I can think of is using it in a lasagna. But do you have any tasty ideas? THANKS!

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So What Happened?

GREAT ideas! I get so stuck in a boring routine lately I feel like all I ever make is chili, pasta, fajitas .... now I have so many ideas I don't even know where to start. For those of you who suggested making more shells and freezing them, i am cracking up because that IS a fantastic idea, but when I wrote this post I was so gorged on the shells that my brain would not allow that concept in. But I also love Riley's ideas for stuffing eggplant, etc., the stuffed chicken breast idea, and definitely the stuffed mushrooms! Thanks everyone for your thoughts!

Featured Answers

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R.J.

answers from Seattle on

Honestly... I'd stuff some more shells and freeze them for a night when you don't want to cook!

Alternatively Stuffed Things come to mind first:

Peppers (anaheim or jalapenos)
Mushrooms
Eggplant

More Italian:
- Ravioli (again, I'd make them and freeze them for sometime in a week or three)
- Canneloni (ditto, I'd probably mix it in w/ ground pork or scallops)
- Add some fresh sauteed fennel bulb & onion and do a roasted pork roll/pinwheel

i ALSO like rolled chicken idea.

Wacky (aka 'fusion')
- "puffs" (like crab rangoon, or samosas, just wildly different in flavor)

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E.S.

answers from Boston on

Make a pan of polenta, pour your cheese mixture over the top and bake a little.

4 moms found this helpful
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S.M.

answers from Dallas on

I know you said you don't want lasagna, but instead of a traditional lasagna, how about lasagna roll-ups? You take the lasagna pasta, put a layer of your mixture and a layer of sauce and roll it up. Repeat until you have used it all up. Put some extra sauce over the top and bake it. We've done this several times and it is a big hit with my family.

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V.F.

answers from Shreveport on

it would be good stuffed in mushrooms and then baked!
You could get a portebello for a dinner portion or serve it as an app in button mushrooms

2 moms found this helpful

M.Q.

answers from Detroit on

You could make chicken bundles. Flatten out some boneless skinless chicken breasts fill w/your mixture then bake them. Make a cream sauce maybe like a Bearnaise serve along side your favorite veggies drizzle w/olive oil season w/a little cracked black pepper & a little sea salt roast in the oven. :)

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E.A.

answers from Erie on

Empenadas or ravioli. Someone needs to go shopping for a pasta maker :)

1 mom found this helpful
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J.C.

answers from New York on

Sounds like a great sauce for turkey or lamb meatballs!

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S.S.

answers from Binghamton on

Sounds like it would be amazing in stuffed baked potatoes.

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M.T.

answers from New York on

If you used raw egg in the filling, you must use/cook it or freeze it right away. If it's not much ricotta, you could put it into an omlette - spinach, bacon and asiago would make a killer omlette.

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T.W.

answers from New York on

You can always freeze it for the next time you make it or better yet make what we call "Poor Man's Lazagna" using Rotini or any other pasta of that size, boil the pasta and mix it in with the ricotta mixture and sauce, then put it in a casserole dish and freeze it. When you want to use it all you have to do is take it out and pop it into the oven. I'm Italian and a nursing student so when I make my filled pasta I make extra and freeze it. I make Manicotti in advance without sauce then freeze them in layers and take them out as I need them. Do the same with my Cavatelli, Ravioli, and stuffed Shells.

1 mom found this helpful
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L.H.

answers from New York on

Left-over filling??? Send it my way. :) Why not add a little hamburger and stuff peppers with it? You could stuff mushrooms with it or put it over noodles. Add some Italian bread crumbs and stuff fish with it.

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S.C.

answers from Des Moines on

Stuffed green peppers (they freeze well too!)
More stuffed shells to freeze for later.
Pizza! Or calzones
A pasta bake with Penne or Rigatoni or the little shells....
Zuchini Boats

1 mom found this helpful
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C.D.

answers from New York on

just bake it like a quiche

1 mom found this helpful
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