A very quick to make stuffed pasta dish that knows how to please the eyes and palate of those you will have at the table. I served these conchiglioni for lunch one Sunday and was delighted to have received great compliments! Check out the video below the recipe so you can easily replicate them!

DESCRIPTION

Comfort food = the stuffed pasta. This equality could be framed and hung on the altar of my gastronomic beliefs. Sometimes I think it was really gigantic luck to have been born in our beautiful peninsula, where pasta is a monument in all the kitchens of Italians.

Tortellini, ravioli, cannelloni are just examples of my love for stuffed pasta. And now that I am here in the U.S. living, it is even more important to remember my country at the time of sitting at the table.
I found these conchiglioni at the supermarket and immediately imagined my favorite filling to fill them: skinny stuffing. Obviously in a vegan key, where tofu replaces cottage cheese.

The process is truly child-proof! I first prepared a tomato sauce starting with a very flavorful sauté made with capers and sage. I cooked the passata slowly over gentle heat and added some flavoring.

Meanwhile, I devoted myself to marrying tofu with spinach. I used firm tofu, but I suggest velvety tofu for more creaminess and smoothness. I used pre-cut frozen spinach, but fresh spinach is also fine: it just needs to be blanched in the pot 2 minutes first and drained. At the time of blending, you must proceed in pulse mode so as not to over-blend the ingredients. We do not want to get a green filling. Here again I added a few extra flavor notes, including the ever-present flaked nutritional yeast to give a cheesy taste to the filling.

The pasta must be cooked perfectly al dente to be stuffed, because otherwise you would risk breaking it during this step. And, once drained, it must be run under fresh water so that it can be immediately stuffed. If you wait for it to cool, the dough will dry out in time. And this we have to avoid.

Each conchiglione should be filled with lean with a teaspoon and then served over tomato sauce. The final effect is really yummy! Let’s take a look at the amounts and procedure given below.

PROCEDURE

1. First we prepare a good tomato sauce. Let’s start with the sauté, made with finely chopped onion, pickled capers, sage leaves and garlic (best if fresh and cut into very small pieces, but I, who had no more, used the dried powdered one). We heat a round of extra virgin oil in a nonstick pan and sauté the ingredients.
2. When the onion appears wilted and translucent, add the tomato puree and add salt, paprika, pepper, and herb mix. We stir the ingredients with a wooden spoon and let them cook on a gentle flame for about 15 minutes.
   When ready, turn off the flame.
3. Now we boil some salted water in a pot and take the necessary amount of spinach out of the freezer. If you use them fresh, they must first be blanched for 2 minutes.
4. Now we turn our attention to making the lean filling. We cut the tofu into pieces and transfer it to a food processor to chop. Combine thawed spinach, salt, flaked nutritional yeast, dried onion and extra virgin olive oil.
5. We chop again in pulse function, that is, in small taps, to obtain a mixture streaked with green. Be careful not to over-whisk or the filling will turn green. You need to get to a soft, smooth consistency.
6. As soon as the water boils, throw in the pasta and let it cook for the indicated minutes.
7. As soon as the pasta is ready, drain it and let it cool under fresh water so it can be stuffed immediately. If you wait for it to cool on its own, the dough becomes dry and we do not want this effect.
8. Now we stuff the dough with the filling by teaspoonfuls and arrange it on a plate.
9. When all stuffed, transfer them to the pan with the sauce and heat for 5 minutes.
10. Now we are ready to plate. We serve the conchiglioni piping hot on a bed of tomato sauce.

NOTE

For storage: you can store the conchiglioni in the refrigerator in a tightly closed container for about 3 days.

Author: Stella Colonna
Source : Vegabulous