Spinach and bacon stuffed pasta shells

I love lazy Sunday’s… don’t you??

We normally go to 11h30 mass (which gives us a pretty good lie in)… and then have a lazy lunch followed by a movie (or a nap) – and this is what a lazy Sunday is all about for us! (Sometimes we even have Sunday night supper club which starts between 17h30/18h30… but this concept kinda died… BUT we are thinking about reinstating it! Especially now that we have longer days and a little spattering of sunshine)

So for this past Sunday – I used a recipe that I had found in the Olive Magazine (May 2013 issue)… and added my own twist…  in fact – 2 twists…

1. I added bacon
2. I used creamed spinach instead of making the spinach sauce from scratch

Conclusion – definitely a dish that I would make again. I would however increase the quantity of bacon & spinach as the pasta shells should (in my humble opinion) be stuffed FULL!

Spinach & Bacon stuffed pasta shells

200g pasta shells (about 20)

300g frozen pack of creamed spinach

100g bacon

2x 25g butter

1 onion – peeled and chopped (I used a red onion and it really worked well)

2 Tablespoons of flour

200ml milk

100g strong cheese, grated (they recommended using cheddar but we used what we had in the fridge)

• Cook pasta shells in salted boiling water until tender (but not too soft)
• Drain and cool under running water to stop cooking
• 
• heat 25g butter in a pan and add onion and cook softened
• 
• Add bacon and continue to fry
• 
• Remove from heat and add the creamed spinach (that has been defrosted in microwave)
• 
• In a pot, melt the 25g of butter, then add the flour and cook for 2-3minutes
• Gradually stir in the milk and whisk to remove lumps
• Add 3/4 of the cheese and mix in to melt, remove from heat.
• 
• Put the shells open-side up in a smallish dish
• Spoon spinach/bacon mixture into the shells
• 
• Pour over the cheese sauce
• 
• Bake at 180C for 20-25minutes