Pasta is the ultimate comfort food! And it’s nice to have a lower fat recipe for pasta on hand when you’re still craving pasta while eating light. These low fat stuffed shells are perfectly filling and wonderful. They’re just like traditional stuffed shells but made with some lower fat ingredients.

Ingredients needed:

jumbo shells olive oil onion frozen spinach 1% cottage cheese dried bread crumbs nutmeg fresh Parmesan cheese salt/pepper egg white marinara sauce

How to make Low Fat Stuffed Shells:

The full, printable recipe is at the end of this post. Cook the pasta shells according to package instructions. Then drain and rinse the shells under cold water. Set them aside. Prepare the filling. Cook chopped onions in olive oil. Then purée the cottage cheese in a food processor. Stir together the cottage cheese, breadcrumbs, nutmeg, some of the Parmesan cheese, sautéed onions, spinach, salt/pepper and an egg white. Stuff each shell with 2 tablespoons of the spinach mixture. Spread some of the marinara sauce in the bottom of a casserole dish. Place the stuffed shells on top of the sauce. Spoon the remaining marinara on top and sprinkle with Parmesan.

Bake the low fat stuffed shells for 30 minutes, until they are heated through. Tent some foil on top of the pan if they seem to be browning too quickly.

Although the photo above shows three shells, you can actually have four shells per serving! Four shells makes a great dinner. I like to serve them with a side salad and a glass of wine too. Enjoy!

Ingredient notes:

In this recipe, it’s important that the spinach is squeezed dry. The easiest way to do this is to thaw the spinach and then spoon it into a thin dishtowel. Squeeze the spinach firmly through the towel and the liquid will drain out. If you don’t wish to use cottage cheese in this recipe, it’s okay to use skim ricotta cheese instead.

Here are a few more pasta recipes you might like to try:

Taco Stuffed Shells Three Cheese Stuffed Shells with Creamy White Sauce One Pot Spaghetti Butternut Squash Stuffed Shells Pasta Shells with Feta and Herbs