Bolognese Stuffed Shells

Stuffed shells are what you make when regular pasta feels too cooperative. Instead of tossing everything together in one pot, you take twenty jumbo shells, fill them one by one with ricotta, egg, mozzarella, and Parmesan, then tuck them into a beef-and-Italian-sausage tomato sauce. It is objectively more work. It is also difficult to be mad about once a bubbling pan of cheese comes out of the oven.

The useful trick is to undercook the shells by about two minutes. They need enough structure to survive filling and another stretch in a 375°F oven, so fully tender pasta at the boiling stage can turn soft and tear easily later. While the shells cool on a sheet pan, brown the beef and sausage with onion, add garlic, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, and Italian seasoning, and simmer that sauce for ten minutes. A cup goes into the baking dish first so the shells are sitting in moisture instead of directly on hot glass.

Fill, sauce, cover with mozzarella, and bake under foil before uncovering for the final ten minutes. The finished shells have browned meat sauce outside and creamy ricotta inside, with melted cheese bridging the gap. Fresh basil goes on at the end, mostly because after assembling twenty pasta shells individually, you deserve something that only requires tearing leaves.