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Cheesy Stuffed Shells

"This is a delicious baked pasta dish with large shells filled with meat, spinach and cheese that children always seem to love. It is kind of a 'spaghetti that behaves itself!'"

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 12 ingredients
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Cheesy Stuffed Shells

Why it works: Pasta and spinach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 376 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Cheesy Stuffed Shells

8 servings
Prep15 min
Cook45 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

943Calories
71 gProtein
45 gFat
60 gCarbs

Counts 12 of 13 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 12 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pork100g cooked242
Pasta1 cup cooked (140g)220
Ricotta Cheese1/2 cup (124g) part-skim174
Parmesan Cheese1 oz (28g)110
Mozzarella Cheese1 oz (28g)85
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Spinach1 cup raw (30g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Oregano1 tsp dried (1.8g)5
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Saucenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pasta + spinachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together376 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Spinach + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pasta + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,079 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Spinach + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Pasta + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together565 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pasta, spinach, ricotta cheese, egg, garlic, lemon, parmesan cheese):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Basilfits better
  3. Oreganofits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pasta, spinach, ricotta cheese, egg, garlic, lemon, parmesan cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.