Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Stuffed Shells

And we're back! Ever since that storm last week our phones have been filled with static. This has also caused our Internet service to go in and out as it pleases which was very irritating so I gave up on posting completely. But finally after several days, they made it to our house and fixed the problem.


I have read several recipes where tofu is used in place of ricotta cheese. I was very skeptical but finally decided to give it a try. Kay and I both like tofu so I figured we would like it even if it didn't taste like cheese. Her dad is not so easy. If he got even a vague hint of tofu, I expected very dramatic hysterics! Unfortunately for him, his body does not seem to be very receptive to dairy anymore so I was willing to take the risk.


I used my basic recipe and just switched out the ricotta for tofu. I was very happy when I asked Bill to name the secret ingredient and he said, "I have no idea. It just tastes like regular stuffed shells." Yes!!


(before the spaghetti sauce)


3 sun dried tomatoes in oil, chopped
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan
1 tsp Italian seasoning
sprinkle of ground black pepper
14 oz block of firm tofu (I used lite)
1 egg
20-24 jumbo shells
Spaghetti sauce of choice


Cook the shells according to the package. I always throw in a few extra just in case some of them break.


Place all ingredients except the shells and spaghetti sauce in a food processor and pulse until smooth.


Place about 1 -2 tablespoons of filling in each shell. Arrange in a 9 x 13 pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and top with warmed spaghetti sauce.


Kay: I didn't know there was tofu in it until I asked my mom. I really thought it was cheese and that's it. But it wasn't. It was tofu! The next day when we warmed it up it tasted like tofu which still tasted ok but not like cheese.


Mom: You could bake these with the sauce on them and maybe a little extra shredded cheese. As I've mentioned before, Kay doesn't like sauce so we put it on our individual servings.


These did not warm up very well. They were OK but more of the tofu flavor came through.

2 comments:

Jacqueline Meldrum said...

They look delicious, was it just on reheating that they weren't so good? What kind of shells did you use, dried or fresh?

Champsleeve said...

We used dried shells. I don't know what the problem was with reheating but you could definitely taste the tofu. We couldn't taste it at all the first time around. Maybe it has something to do with microwaving them? I'm not sure. Next time I will probably just bake enough for us to eat in one setting and refrigerate the rest to bake on another day.

Dana