recipes
stuffed shells, two ways
This week we bring you stuffed shells – stuffed onions and stuffed conchiglione, taking inspiration from Persia, Italy, India and leftovers from the fridge.
You can eat the fillings on their own but its a different vibe when you stuff them and take a quick and easy bite – it’s creates a burst of flavours in your mouth which is refreshing.
lemon rice
stuffed onion
persian-indian-inspired
We first saw this on NYT Cooking and always wanted to try it. So, we bring a South Indian twist on the Persian rice-stuffed onions with the quintessential lemon rice or elumicha saatham.
cheese ball
stuffed conchiglione
italian leftover-inspired
Plucked some basil from our kitchen pots and mixed up leftover cheeses in the fridge to create this yummmyness.
lemon rice stuffed onion
the stuff
the shell:
1-2 large onion
the stuffing:
1 cup rice, cooked
1 onion, chopped
1 lemon, juiced
mustard seeds
fennel seeds
ginger, grated
ghee
turmeric
salt
green chilis (optional)
nuts (optional)
coriander (optional)
the method
- Bring a pot of water to a boil.
- Cut a large onion lengthwise until the middle.
- When the water is boiling, lower the heat until its just simmering and drop the cut onions in for 25 minutes until soft.
- Scoop the onions out of the simmering water.
- Cut the roots and squeeze out the onion layers and let it cool.
- While it cools, prep the lemon rice filing.
- In a frying pan, melt some ghee.
- Add mustard and fennel seeds and let them sizzle and pop.
- Add the grated ginger and chopped onion and fry till they turn soft.
- Add a bit of turmeric and salt and mix.
- Stir the cooked rice in and mix until every grain is nice and yellow.
- Squeeze a lemon and mix all that tanginess up.
- Add some chopped coriander on top for some colour.
- Oil a frying pan.
- Now scoop a tablespoon full of lemon rice onto an onion shell and lay them on the frying pan.
- Heat the frying pan on a low medium heat to caramelise the onion shells.
- Add little water so the onions don’t burn.
- Drop in a stick of butter to give the onion shells a nice buttery taste and a caramel brown shade.
- Pick up a shell, stuff it in your mouth and enjoy that bite.
cheese ball stuffed conchiglione
the stuff
the shell:
9-10 conchiglione pasta
the stuffing:
ricotta
mozzarella
parmesan
basil leaves
salt & pepper
the method
- Bring a pot of water to a boil – salt it and drizzle some olive oil.
- Drop them conchiglione pasta to cook.
- While it cooks, prep the cheese balls.
- In a bowl, add ricotta, crumble mozzarella and grate some parmesan – season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Roll them up into small cheese balls.
- Drain the pasta when its cooked.
- In a baking tray, drizzle some passata.
- In each shell, layer one basil and drop a cheese ball into a shell.
- Layer the shells on the baking tray and pop them up into the oven for about 20 minutes.
- Time to savour all that cheesy goodness mmmmm.