Why add such a large pinch of salt to the pasta water?

It's to flavor the pasta. Cooking pasta in a large pot of salted water is exactly how Italian cooks do it. Dried pasta becomes soft by absorbing the water in the pot. The salt in the water will flavor the pasta too.

Anything fresh I can add to the top of my pasta?

Fresh herbs are great as a topping to this dish. Just add them after baking! Fresh basil and fresh parsley are a common pairing with stuffed shells. If you want a crispy coating, try sprinkling with vegan breadcrumbs before baking. It's less crispy, but for more cheesy flavor you can sprinkle with nutritional yeast before baking.

Can I make this gluten-free?

Yes! The are gluten-free jumbo pasta shells out there. Tinkyada sells a rice-based version that works great. Follow the package instructions to cook them right.

Vegan Stuffed Shells For the Whole Family

Name: Vegan Stuffed Shells For the Whole Family
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 12 oz Jumbo Pasta Shells; 1 to 1.5 Batch of our Vegan Tofu Ricotta (see note 2); 10 oz Frozen Chopped Spinach, thawed; 1.5 Cups Marinara Sauce; Vegan Parmesan For Topping, Optional (see note 3); Oil Spray, Optional (see note 4)

Description

Vegan Stuffed Shells are a super cozy and easy dinner. With jumbo shells and our vegan ricotta, you'll have this comfort dish in no time!

Ingredients

Units Scale

12 oz Jumbo Pasta Shells
1 to 1.5 Batch of our Vegan Tofu Ricotta (see note 2)
10 oz Frozen Chopped Spinach, thawed
1.5 cups Marinara Sauce
Vegan Parmesan For Topping, Optional (see note 3)
Oil Spray, Optional (see note 4)

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Start a Pot of Water: In a large pot, add enough water to cover your jumbo shells. Add a tablespoon of salt if desired to flavor the pasta and let the water come to a boil. Once it does, cook the jumbo shells in the boiling water until they are al dente. Drain the excess water from your pasta.
Pre-Heat Oven: Preheat your oven to 375 F (190 C).
Defrost the Spinach: If you plan ahead, you can defrost the spinach block by placing in it in your refrigerator or out on a counter, depending on how soon you plan to use it. Otherwise, you can defrost your spinach. Remove it from any packaging and place it on a microwave safe dish. Microwave by setting the power to 30 percent and heating it for 2-3 minute intervals until it is pliable.
Strain the Spinach: Hold your fine mesh strainer over a sink and then place your defrosted spinach in it. Press the water out of the spinach either by hand or, if it is too hot from the microwave, with the back of a spoon. You want to get the spinach from sopping wet to lightly damp. It will lose quite a lot of volume during this process but this is expected. Lightly pull apart the spinach into little pieces.
Make the Ricotta Spinach Filling: If you have not done so already, you can make the vegan ricotta recipe right now. Add the cheese ingredients to the food processor and blend until desired texture. Then add your spinach and pulse it into the mixture. Taste the mixture. If needed, add an extra pinch of salt or dash of lemon, but we thought it was pretty delicious as is.
Prepare the Baking Dish: In a 9x13 baking dish, add some of the tomato sauce, making sure to add it slowly to make sure you can reserve some for later. You want to use the back of a spoon to spread it out so that there are no white/empty spots on the bottom of the baking dish. This layer will help keep the pasta moist and add flavor.
Fill the Shells: With a spoon (we like one with a pointed end), fill each of the cooked shells with a bit of your ricotta mixture. You could also use a piping bag or a plastic bag (like food storage bag) with the corner cut off to fill them instead. Place each filled shell in the baking tray. Avoid using broken shells. You should have enough shells to comfortable fill the whole tray with enough left over to make up for the broken one.
Cover with Sauce: With the remaining pasta sauce, cover bits of the exposed pasta with dollops of sauce. Avoid hitting the dollops on open ricotta mixture to help prevent it from getting runny.
Grate the Vegan Parmesan: If you are using the vegan parmesan, use a microplane to grate shreds over the shells. To help it melt, you can blast the top of the pasta with a little oil spray. Alternatively you can add a pan of ice cubes on the rack below your pan of vegan stuffed shells. The steam will help melt the vegan cheese. I would avoid the broiler here as the uncovered pasta bits may burn.
Bake: Add the baking dish to you oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes (you might want to check it at 10-15 minutes then bake for longer if needed, depending on whether your oven runs hotter than ours!).
Serve: Let cool for 3 to 5 minutes and then plate with a large spoon or spatula. Goes perfectly with our vegan garlic bread!

Notes

Note 1: You can make this recipe gluten-free with gluten free shells.
Note 2: Our vegan ricotta is really easy to make; takes about 5 minutes. Best part is that you can make our ricotta and then just dump in the spinach and just pulse it in.
Note 3: Violife makes this amazing block of vegan parmesan that we use whenever we need it in our recipes. It tastes great and shreds so well with a microplane. We also have a Vegan Parmesan recipe that you could use in place of it. Vegan mozzarella shreds will also work.
Note 4: A little spray of oil can help vegan cheese melt. We tend to use an avocado oil spray when we use this method.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Category: Pasta, Dinner
Method: Baking
Cuisine: American, Italian

Keywords: Vegan Stuffed Shells, Vegan Dinner Recipes, Vegan Pasta, Vegan Dinner Ideas.