Stuffed Paneer Big Shell Pasta

About Stuffed Paneer Big Shell Pasta

Ingredients

• Big shell pasta, boiled till al dante 12
• Tomato sauce
• Big red tomatoes, chopped 4
• Fresh basi leaves 8 to 10
• Garlic, chopped 1 tsp
• Readymade tomato puree 4 tbsps
• Sugar ½ tsp
• Salt to taste
• White pepper powder to taste
• Filling
• Spinach, blanched and chopped 150 gms
• Cottage cheese (paneer) 150 gms
• Olive oil 1 tbsp
• Garlic, finely chopped 1 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Black peppercorns, crushed ¼ tsp
• Nutmeg powder 2 pinches
• Fresh cream 1 tbsp
• Mozzarella cheese 50 gms
• To serve
• Bread roundels, toasted 12
• Parmesan cheese powder as required
• Small pieces of tomato 12 to garnish
• Fresh curly parsley 2 sprigs to garnish

How to Make Stuffed Paneer Big Shell Pasta (Stepwise Photos)

Method

1. Roughly chop the tomatoes, put them in a blender jar. Tear the basil leaves and add to the tomatoes. Add garlic and blend coarsely.
2. Pour it into a non-stick pan, add tomato puree, mix and cook on medium heat. Add sugar, salt and white pepper powder, mix and cook till the sauce thickens.
3. Take spinach in a bowl, crumble the cottage cheese and add.
4. Heat olive oil in another non-stick pan, add garlic and saute till lightly coloured. Add spinach and cottage cheese mixture and mix. Add salt and crushed black peppercorns and mix well.
5. Add nutmeg powder and fresh cream and mix well. Switch off the heat and let the mixture cool slightly.
6. Grate mozzarella cheese into this pan and mix well.
7. Preheat oven to 180ºC.
8. Stuff the pasta shells with this spinach-cottage cheese mixture and keep on a plate.
9. Arrange the toasted bread roundels on an ovenproof platter, apply some prepared tomato sauce over them, keep 1 stuffed shell pasta on each roundel.
10. Grate a little more mozzarella cheese over each shell pasta and sprinkle a little parmesan cheese powder over them.
11. Keep the plate in the preheated oven and bake for 8-10 minutes or till the cheese melts.
12. Bring the plate out of the oven and garnish each shell pasta with a piece of tomato. Keep a couple of curly parsley sprigs on the plate and serve it immediately.

Additional Tips and Tricks