Ground Turkey Stuffed Shells

Stuffed shell recipe ingredients

• Jumbo pasta shells: The star of the show! Jumbo shells are large and concave, and perfect for filling with deliciousness. You'll boil them to al dente before stuffing and baking them.
• Ground turkey: You're going to combine this meat with the rest of the ingredients to fill each shell, but this can easily be substituted for ground beef, ground pork, chicken sausage, Italian sausage, shredded chicken, or your favorite meat substitute. Or you can swap it for spinach!
• Spaghetti sauce: To make things easy, I call for a jar of your favorite spaghetti/marinara sauce – but your favorite homemade spaghetti sauce recipe is more than welcome! You'll want 24 ounces worth.
• Garlic: I call for one clove of garlic, but if you're like me and believe the limit of too much garlic doesn't exist, feel free to use (much) more ;)
• Egg: The egg is going to get lightly beaten and used to help all the ingredients adhere together and provide moisture.
• Parsley: Make sure you grab flat-leaf parsley and not curly-leaf parsley. In my opinion, flat-leaf parsley has a more pleasant flavor – I find curly to be a tad bitter.
• Ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, and parmesan cheese: We're doing a mix of three cheeses for this mixture much like you'd find in lasagna. I also enjoy adding some Asiago cheese, or swapping the parmesan for it.

How to make stuffed shells

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F and spray an 9×12″ baking dish with nonstick spray – set aside.
2. Cover the bottom of the baking dish with half the spaghetti sauce (12 ounces' worth). Set aside.
3. While the oven is warming up, cook pasta al dente according to the directions on the box (typically around 9 minutes). Once cooked, drain and set aside to cool.
4. In a large pan, cook ground turkey until browned, stirring frequently. Add garlic and stir for a minute or two until fragrant. Remove from heat.

Substitutions and variations

• Feel free to substitute the ground turkey for ground beef, ground pork, Italian sausage, or shredded chicken. You could also swap in your favorite meat substitute. Or you can remove the meat altogether and add spinach instead! Not gonna lie, sometimes I like the vegetarian way even better.
• If you don’t have garlic cloves, you can substitute any of the below:
  • 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• You can use reduced fat ricotta or 2% mozzarella to help cut down on the calorie count a little.
• You can also add Asiago cheese, or substitute the parmesan cheese with it.
• Want to add a little spice? Add some red pepper flakes to the ground turkey mixture!

How to store stuffed shells

Cover your baking dish tightly with plastic wrap or put in an airtight container to store in the fridge for up to 1 week.

How to reheat stuffed shells

You'll reheat them the same way you initially baked them – in the oven at 350°F for 20 minutes or until heated through. But this time, cover the baking dish with aluminum foil.

Can you freeze stuffed shells?

You can! After you've done all the prep and assembly in your baking dish, cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap and foil and place in the freezer.

To thaw, put the dish in the fridge the night before (or the morning of). Then let it come to room temperature for about 30 minutes, and then bake according to the recipe instructions.