It has been hot hot hot here! That means I avoid using the oven if possible. So today I made stuffed shells in the crock pot. After I had everything put into the crock pot, I realized I should have posted this as a recipe. Oh well! I thought my pasta sauce was a little thin anyway.

Yesterday, I posted about homemade ricotta cheese. So today I used that ricotta cheese in the stuffed shells! I also had to make my own pasta sauce and that was not quite as successful as the ricotta cheese. I think it was mostly because I had to throw it together in less than 30 minutes. I was also afraid to season the sauce too much because my boys don’t like their food “spicy.” I would definitely go with a jarred pasta sauce in this if you have it. There are seven of us in our family so I have to buy the large jars of pasta sauce from Costco. Sometime soon I will figure out how to make my own pasta sauce but that is a project for another day!

The shells were done after about 3 hours in the crock pot.

My plating skills leave something to be desired, but the shells tasted good! I even went back to get more.

I did sneak a taste of the leftover ricotta cheese. It does taste different than store bought. It definitely has a fresher taste as well as an aftertaste of sweetness that made me think of mixing honey with it and eating it for dessert. I think the next time I make ricotta I will probably use it to make a honey ricotta cheesecake.