Description
Pepper halves make a perfect swap for pasta shells in these cheesy dish!
Ingredients
Scale
- 4 bell peppers
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 4 handfuls of baby spinach, roughly chopped
- 1 large egg
- 15 oz skim-milk ricotta cheese
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for garnish (See note)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- Dash black pepper
- 2 cups marinara sauce
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and garlic over medium heat for 1 minute.
- Add in the spinach and stir for 2-3 minutes or until the spinach begins to wilt slightly.
- Remove from heat.
- Slice the bell peppers and in half and remove the white membrane and seeds from the inside. These will be your “cups” for the cheese mixture.
- In a large bowl beat the egg slightly and then combine it with the ricotta cheese.
- Add in the mozzarella, parmesan, salt, basil, oregano and black pepper.
- In a large casserole dish, spread marinara sauce across the bottom.
- “Stuff” each of the peppers by dividing the cheese mixture evenly into each of the pepper halves.
- Spread out the pepper halves across the dish. (It’s fine if they’re touching, they just need to lay flat. If you’re also baking pasta shells, do these in a separate dish, as they will need less time to bake.)
- Use the rest of the marinara sauce to cover the peppers.
- Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes.
- Remove the foil and continue to bake for 5-10 minutes or until the peppers are tender.
- Sprinkle with additional parmesan cheese and serve!
Notes
Freshly grated parmesan is so worth the extra effort! Ditch the jar of grated parmesan and grate some right off a block of parmesan. I promise it’s worth it!