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exactly four jumbo pasta shells in red tomato sauce topped with soft pale melted mozzarella, their openings showing a creamy blended cottage-cheese filling mixed uniformly with tiny chopped spinach flecks and mushrooms minced down to fine brown specks no larger than grains of sand, with no distinct brown mushroom chunks, slices or caps anywhere, no meat and no garnish
Andre Lewis

Crockpot Spinach Mushroom Stuffed Shells

Pipe the filling into the dry shells gently, supporting each shell in your palm instead of forcing a spoon against its brittle edge. Blended cottage cheese gives the mushroom-and-spinach mixture a smooth base, while a measured amount of thin tomato sauce supplies the liquid the pasta needs. Arrange the shells in layers with sauce between them so the ones in the middle don’t stay chalky. Check a center shell at its thick folded edge before deciding the whole pot is ready.
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Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 4 hours 25 minutes
Total Time 5 hours 5 minutes
Servings: 6
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 24 large dry jumbo pasta shells about 10 oz
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 8 oz cremini mushrooms finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves minced
  • 5 oz frozen chopped spinach thawed and squeezed very dry
  • 1 1/2 cups small-curd cottage cheese drained briefly in a fine sieve
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan
  • 1/2 tsp fine salt divided
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1 can 28 oz tomato passata
  • 1 1/2 cups unsalted vegetable broth
  • 1 tsp dried basil
  • 1 tsp butter for the cooker
  • 4 oz low-moisture mozzarella shredded

Method
 

  1. Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and cook mushrooms for 7 to 9 minutes until their liquid evaporates. Add garlic for 1 minute, remove from heat and cool for 5 minutes.
  2. Blend cottage cheese, egg, Parmesan, 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper until smooth. Fold in dried spinach and cooled mushrooms, then spoon into a sturdy piping bag or food-storage bag with one corner snipped.
  3. Fill each dry jumbo shell with an equal share of the mixture, about 2 tablespoons, supporting the shell gently so it doesn’t crack. Do not boil or soak the shells first.
  4. Mix passata, broth, basil and remaining salt. Butter a 6-quart slow cooker, spread 1 cup sauce over the bottom and arrange twelve filled shells, then add half the remaining sauce.
  5. Add the other twelve shells, cover completely with remaining sauce and cover the cooker. Cook on low for 3 1/2 to 4 hours, checking after 3 hours, until a center shell is tender at its folded edge and the filling reaches 165°F.
  6. Scatter mozzarella over the hot shells, cover for 10 minutes to melt, then switch off and rest uncovered for 10 minutes. Serve four shells per person with sauce.