When the mamas and the mini-chefs walked into our apartment this week, everyone looked a little exhausted.  There was a cannon of coughs and sneezes and even yawns.  It is the time of year when we get a little run down from too much partying, too many obligations (even when they are fun obligations), and the beginning of being forced inside to play because of inclement weather.

Good thing we were making such a comforting dish!  This traditional (American-?) Italian dish, baked pasta shells filled with a ricotta cheese mixture and covered in tomato sauce, got knocked up a level by not only using our recipe for Winter Vegetable Tomato Sauce, which packed with lots of vegetables, but also adding some chopped spinach and chickpeas.  We filled the shells with a plain ricotta and parmesan cheese mixture, but you could absolutely add more spinach (or any finely chopped green) into the recipe for the cheese mixture below to make it even more nutritious.  Sometimes I hold back just a tiny bit for class so that I don’t push my luck with so many visible vegetables that the children will not try it at all.

But, try it they did, and they didn’t seem to really notice that it was loaded up with vegetables galore.

For class, we filled condiment bottles with the ricotta cheese mixture so that the little kids could easily fill their shells, and it is really, really fun to use these bottles whenever possible.  We highly recommend it.  If, however, you do not have one of those bottles, the more traditional spoon will work just fine.  This dish could easily be a family affair, but really, too, it is an easy dish.  Our family’s strategy is to cook up a double recipe of the tomato sauce, use some of it for the recipe below and use the rest of it over white beans, penne, eggs, or sauteed greens during the week.  Yum.

If you are vegan or allergic to dairy and would like to try this dish, substitute 3 cups of pureed canellini beans, a tablespoon of olive oil, and 1/2 c. of chopped spinach for the ricotta mixture and just leave the mozzarella off the top.  Everything else can be made in the exact same way as described in the recipe below.

Baked Pasta Shells in a Spinach and Chickpea Tomato Sauce

For the Sauce:

• 3-4 c. Winter Vegetable Tomato Sauce
• 2 c. spinach, chopped
• 1 1/2-2 c. cooked chickpeas (15 oz. can is fine)

1. Stir the chickpeas and the spinach into the sauce just before you bring the sauce down to a simmer.

For the Filling:

• 2 1/2 c. ricotta cheese, room temperature
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 c. parmesan cheese, grated
• 1/2 t. salt
• black pepper, to taste

1. With your mini-chef, measure everything into large bowl, starting with the eggs so that you can take out any shells that fall into the bowl.
2. Whisk to combine completely.

To Assemble the Dish:

• 1 box of large shells, cooked according to the directions on the package
• 1 c. fresh mozzarella cheese
• 1-2 T. dried basil (to taste)
• 3-4 c. Spinach and Chickpea Tomato Sauce from above
• ricotta cheese mixture from above

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Ladle 1 1/2 of the spinach and chickpea and spinach tomato sauce into the bottom of a 9×13-inch pan, using the back of the ladle to spread it out all over the bottom of the pan.
3. Using a heaping tablespoon of the ricotta cheese mixture for each shell, fill the shells one by one and line them up in the pan.
4. Cover with the rest of the tomato sauce.
5. Sprinkle on the dried basil and the mozzarella cheese over the top.
6. Big Person: bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until the mozzarella just starts to turn golden.