In this recipe the shells are not homemade. You will need a special machine for that.  Making homemade pasta is very time consuming for a busy family and it takes a while to produce a large quantity, so I opt to use pasta in a box.  The inside is homemade and a really nice combination of ingredients to achieve a rich and flavorful taste.  I layer my cheeses in this recipe, mainly because I cannot add egg because my son is allergic and he LOVES and devours these. So instead, I add: Ricotta, parmesan, and mozzarella cheeses. Here are the directions.

This is a two-person job, so enlist the help of your kids/friends/husband/wife! Start by opening your cans of tomato sauce and seasoning that a little and put that on the stove to warm. It doesn’t have to cook long, maybe 20 minutes. Then, get a large pot of water and let that come to a boil. While you are waiting, mix together all of your cheeses. Start by putting the Ricotta cheese in the bowl, then add to that freshly grated parmesan cheese and grated mozzarella, salt, dried parsley and driedoregano. Mix really well, and taste it. It might need more salt or oregano.  Use your taste as your guide.

Once the water boils add the pasta shells and salt the water!  Then, once these have cooked according to the directions on the box roughly 10 minutes, drain these into a colander to cool. So they don’t stick together, you will need to drizzle olive oil over them.  Prepare two oven safe dishes with the tomato sauce on the bottom on each dish. Oven can be pre-heated to 350 degrees if you plan on cooking them right away.

Then start the piping process! We use a large ziploc bag and fill with the Ricotta cheese mixture, and snip the end off one side. Be sure to seal it well. Then have someone hold the bag, while you keep the pasta shell open on one side they can pipe it in. Then do the same thing on the opposite side. Stack them sided by side and some on top of the bottom row.  As seen below.

Then you can top with tomato sauce, grate parmesan cheese on the top, and add a dash of parsley.  As seen below.

Put tin foil on the dishes and put in a pre-heated oven for about 35 minutes. After 25 minutes take off the tin foil so the top cooks nicely.  These will melt in your mouth!