Name: Pumpkin Stuffed Shells
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 50 min
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 12 ounces jumbo shells; Homemade Spaghetti Sauce, double recipe of Homemade Easy Pizza Sauce (you can use a 28 ounce can tomatoes), or 28-ounce jar purchased marinara sauce; 5 ounces baby spinach leaves; 1 cup ricotta cheese; 1 cup mozzarella cheese; 15-ounce can pumpkin puree; 1 teaspoon chili powder; 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg; 1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped sage; 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt; Fresh ground black pepper; 1 egg; 2/3 cup shredded Pecorino or Parmesan cheese, for garnish

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These pumpkin stuffed shells are a stunning vegetarian main dish! Three cheeses, spinach and pumpkin puree are baked up in a quick marinara.

This post was created in partnership with Wolf. All opinions are our own.

It’s time to reclaim the kitchen, folks. You may have seen my recent trip to Madison, Wisconsin to visit one of our favorite brands to work with, Wolf. Why do we have a soft spot for the brand? Because just like us, Wolf is passionate about growing a passion for cooking. For the past few years, Wolf has put together quite a few educational and inspirational resources on how to cook more (like this pretty amazing video). These pumpkin stuffed shells are all about reclaiming the kitchen! Why? Keep reading for our cooking tips that make this stuffed shells recipe delicious and doable.

Related: 12 Healthy Pumpkin Recipes

Reclaiming the kitchen…with pumpkin stuffed shells

This pumpkin stuffed shells recipe is part of #ReclaimtheKitchen initiative to demystify home cooking by sharing actionable tips, tools and techniques to help you reclaim your kitchen. To do this, we’ve created cozy fall stuffed shells that can work for a dinner with friends or a date night in.

The filling is gooey and cozy: savory pumpkin mixed with ricotta and Mozzarella cheeses, with a bit of fresh sage thrown in. The stuffed shells are then baked in our quick tomato sauce, which compliments the filling without overwhelming it. It’s an impressive, showy vegetarian main dish that’s perfect for feeding a crowd. It works as a cozy fall dinner, or even a vegetarian Thanksgiving main dish.

While these pumpkin stuffed shells take a bit of time to assemble the components, they’re perfect for a celebration. Best of all, the recipe illustrates a few tools (or “tricks”) that are important for reclaiming the kitchen. Ready to get started?

Trick 1: How to make a quick tomato sauce

Here’s a go-to marinara sauce that’s tasty and takes literally 5 minutes. It’s actually…pizza sauce! Yes, our Homemade Easy Pizza Sauce recipe is perfect for pasta, too. And it’s so, so simple: just pop the ingredients in the blender and whiz it up! Another great option is our Homemade Spaghetti Sauce, which also has meat or veggie crumbles.

If you don’t have 5 minutes, you can always use your favorite jar of purchased marinara (just make sure it’s high quality).

Trick 2: How to salt pasta water

If you’re not an Italian grandmother, you may not know this secret. Liberally salt your pasta water! Why? It results in tastier pasta. And did you know that the water should actually taste salty….like salt water? Typically if we’re filling a huge pot, we’ll use about 1 tablespoon of kosher salt. Don’t worry, you won’t actually consume this much salt, as it disperses into the water that is eventually drained out.

Trick 3: How to quickly wilt greens

For this pumpkin stuffed shells recipe, we’ve used one of our favorite tricks to “cook” spinach without really cooking it all. Instead of cooking it on the stovetop and dirtying yet another pan, here’s what you do: use the boiling water from the pasta to wilt the greens!

Simply place the spinach leaves in the colander where you’ll drain the pasta. Then pour some of the boiling water from the pot over the spinach. Even about half the water from the pot should be enough to entirely wilt the spinach. Then remove the spinach with tongs to a boil, and finish draining your pasta. If you’re ever using spinach or greens in a pasta, this is a nice way to cook it without dirtying a pan. (We use this technique to cook red peppers in our Peanut Noodles with Napa Cabbage.)

Trick 4: How to quickly chop sage

EThis pumpkin stuffed shells recipe is infused with fall flavor using the herb sage. Quickly chopping sage can speed up this recipe. This trick can be used for any leafy herb or green:

Chiffonade the leaves. This means stack the leaves, roll them up, and then thinly slice them. Watch this video.
Lay the thin slices together and slice them cross-wise, resulting in a fine chop.

We hope you enjoy these pumpkin stuffed shells! For more on #ReclaimtheKitchen, head to the Reclaim the Kitchen website.

Related: Another favorite Italian-style recipe — our Margherita pizza!

This pumpkin stuffed shells recipe is…

Vegetarian. For gluten free, use gluten free pasta.