Tag Archives: Cottage Cheese

Jumbo Stuffed Shells with Spinach and Cottage Cheese

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It took me a long time to find these shells. They weren’t at my usual Save On Foods, or at Costco.  Didn’t see them at Coopers, Safeway or Bulk Barn.  I even searched a little Italian Market downtown and still nothing. Then one day while shopping the Joe Baby clothes at Superstore I thought I’d take a gander over to the pasta aisle and what do you know, they were there.  Finally!!

Well worth the hunt though, the shells are so good.  I’ve only actually made them one way, but there are so many varieties, and so many I’d like to try.  Next time I might do Chicken, Mozzarella and Pesto.  Or a Chipolte Butternut Squash or maybe something with Chorizo Sausage.  Yum!

This particular recipe is a simple one.  Very similar to a classic lasagna, but without all the noodles, so it’s much lighter, and still delicious!.

Cook the pasta till al dente, but make sure they don’t get too soft.  Otherwise they’ll be a little too flimsy when working with them and you don’t want them to break apart.  Drain and rinse, let cool, but try to work with them while they are still a little wet otherwise the noodles will start to stick together.  Then they may end up ripping anyways. Place the first few rows of noodles on their backs, then gradually turn onto an angle as you fill the dish up.

Top the noodles with a simple tomato sauce.  I used part tomato sauce, and part crushed tomatoes, then added some extra veggies. Not too thick, just enough to cover the noodles.

One of the best parts of any pasta dish is the cheese.  All melted, ooey gooey with crispy brown edges.  So good.  I used cheddar and Parmesan, but if you don’t have those on hand, mozzarella works great, or even a spicy jalapeno havarti for a little extra kick.

Stuffed Jumbo Shells with Spinach and Cottage Cheese

1 Box Jumbo Shells

1 pkg Frozen Spinach, thawed and drained
1 500g Container Cottage Cheese
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
1/2 cup Marble Cheddar Cheese, grated
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 Small Red Pepper
About 10 white mushrooms, sliced
3 Cloves Garlic, minced
1 Small Yellow Onion, diced
1 Jar Tomato Sauce, or Can of Crushed Tomatoes
1 tsp Dried Oregano
1 tsp Dried Chili Flakes
Salt & Pepper
Parsley

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and add pasta shells.  Cook until al dente, not too soft or they’ll fall apart when trying to stuff them.  Remove pot from element, drain and rinse pasta.  Allow to cool to touch so you can work with them.

Mix together drained spinach, cottage cheese and eggs.  Add in 1/2 parmesan cheese and stir together.

Heat a medium saucepan over med-high heat.  Add olive oil. Add garlic and onion and cook a few minutes until translucent. Mix in mushrooms, cover and reduce heat to medium and cook 5-10 minutes, or until soft and flavorful. Stir in red pepper and spices. Mix in tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes, cover and cook until sauce is heated through.

Heat oven to 350F. In a 9×13 inch dish, spoon sauce in until it just covers the bottom.  One by one, fill the pasta shells with cottage cheese mixture, about 2 tbsp. Line shells in dish side by side. Continue until all shells are used up or there is no more space to fill in dish. Pour remaining sauce over pasta shells, then sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake 30-40 minutes.  Remove foil, return to oven and cook until sauce is bubbling and cheese is melted and browning, 10-15 minutes

Remove from oven, allow to cool 10 minutes.  Garnish with parsley and season with salt and pepper.

Spinach & Chicken Empanadas

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Empanadas are a latin caribbean pastry shell turnover. The filling can be sweet or savory and the shell is buttery, but still flaky.

These pockets of goodness are so intriguing.  At first glance I imagined them somewhere in the middle of a samosa and a calzone.  Upon tasting them, it triggered a memory of a flaky meat pie.  In the end, the taste and texture is completely its own.

With the buttery flaky pastry like shell, a sweet filling would be absolutely divine.

For our first batch of empanadas we went with spinach, feta, cottage cheese and chicken.

I’m totally hooked.  The list of combinations is already building in my head, and the hardest decision at the moment is deciding to go with sweet or savory.

Making any dough always leaves me a little perplexed since I haven’t worked with it too much.  The buttery flaky texture had me worried, it didn’t seem like it would come together.  Once chilled and rolled out in some flour, that texture stayed, right through till the end when you bite into a warm, flaky, buttery pastry shell.

The Dough (adapted from Epicurious)
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 Egg
1/3 cup Cold Water
1 tbsp distilled white vinegar

In a large bowl, sift together flour and salt. Rub butter pieces together with flour and salt (using your fingertips) until mixture resembles coarse meal with pea size butter lumps.

In a small bowl, whisk together egg, water and vinegar with a fork. Add to flour mixture stirring until just incorporated.

Turn mixture onto lightly floured surface and gather together. Knead gently, just enough to bring dough together with the heel of your hand. Form into a flat rectangle, wrap with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

The Filling (Inspired by Honest Fare)
1 bag Spinach
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
2 chicken breasts, finely diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp red chile flakes
1/2 cup cottage cheese, drained
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 tbsp olive oil
2 Eggs

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Saute onion and garlic for a few minutes until onions are translucent and garlic is browned. Add chicken and chili flakes. Cover and cook on medium high heat for 5 minutes or until cooked. Add spinach with a touch of water.  Cover and let steam until the spinach turns bright green and wilts down. Drain as much liquid as you can.  Add cottage cheese, feta cheese and 1 Egg.  Mix together.

The Assembly
Preheat oven to 400F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and remove plastic wrap.  Place dough on a lightly floured surface, cut into 8 medium size pieces (or 12 small or 6 large).  Flouring the counter and rolling pin so the dough does not stick, roll out pieces one at a time until about 5 inches in diameter and 1/8inch in thickness.

In a small bowl, whisk together 1 tbsp water with 1 Egg to create an egg wash.

Place about 2 tbsp of filling into middle of each empanada.  Fold into a semi-circle.  Along the edge, fold bottom dough over top dough and press down with a fork.  Repeat with each empanada and place on prepared baking sheet.  Using a pastry brush, brush each empanada with egg wash, flip over gently (so you don’t break the seal) and brush again with egg wash.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until empanadas have puffed up, are lightly golden and crispy.

Remove from oven and let cool slightly.  Serve warm.