Stuffed Shells

I have had shells stuffed with ricotta cheese and sauce multiple times before.  My mother makes them at home sometimes. But I have never made them with anything else inside. Honestly, while being jumbo shells, they are still pretty small, and after being cooked they are also pretty delicate. Stuffing them with anything else seemed like it might be more trouble then it was worth. (Plus I love them with ricotta!) But while at the store once the boyfriend picked out a box of shells and said he wanted to make stuffed shells with meat. Obviously I was not going to discourage this. I love when he gets excited to cook something. I don't think he ever did it before, and I'm not really sure where he got the idea or if he just thought of it on the spot or what, but we went to get ground meat right away.

I must admit two things. #1, yes this is really his meal, I really didn't make it at all, though I did help. The credit is all his. And #2, we ended up eating the meat in a different dinner before we ever had time to make this dish... That's why this took so long to actually get made, we had to wait til we went back to the store and got more!

They were delicious though. I helped cook the pasta, taking them out before they were all the way done so they wouldn't be too soft. I also seasoned the meat because I am the expert on that :) and he absolutely loves my burgers so he wanted me to make the meat for these to be just like them. Then he put it in a pan to cook it a little (because it would take forever for it to cook all the way through in the oven when it was already stuffed in the shells) and added some crushed tomatoes to make it a little saucier and stuffed every single shell with it. Grated tons of cheese on top, and put more of the crushed tomatoes on top as sauce. And then more cheese!

Baked it all in the oven at probably around 350/400 until the cheese was all melted and meat was warm and cooked all the way through. Then of course they have to cool for a while because they are steamy hot and will burn your mouth!