If you loved Stuffed Shells but don’t love the time that goes into making them, then this Unstuffed Shells Casserole is the recipe for you!
You probably know by now how much I love pasta. This love is only really rivaled by the one I have for comforting casseroles that can save me time. This Unstuffed Shells Casserole checks off both of those boxes!
Traditional Stuffed Shells are fantastic, but I’m too impatient to make them. I also have a delicious recipe for classic Lasagna with Meat Sauce, but that is pretty labor-intensive. I absolutely love it, but it’s a special-occasion recipe for me because of the multiple steps included.
I’ve been seeing a lot of layered-pasta casseroles on YouTube lately, so I thought why not just mix what would normally go into the stuffing of the shells all around the pasta to create a cohesive layer. That way you save about 20 minutes by not having to stuff each shell individually!
The result is pretty much the exact flavor of traditional stuffed shells, but in a fraction of the time!
How to make unstuffed shells casserole
The first step is to make my Quick Zero Point Marinara. If you want to save even more time, make the marinara beforehand and keep it in the refrigerator. That way you don’t need to spend the 20 minutes on that sauce.
All you really need to do at this point is cook the pasta. Boil the pasta for about three minutes less than it says on the package. It’s going to soften more in the oven.
If you follow me on Instagram (@litecravings), you know that I’m following the #MyWW Purple plan. I wanted to find whole wheat shells to make this only 4 SP a serving, but I couldn’t find them. You could totally just use smaller whole wheat shells or any other kind of short pasta, like whole wheat penne, to keep the points lower on that plan. Whole wheat pasta would also make this 1 point lower on both Green and Blue.
Once the pasta is cooked, mix in with most of the cheese, seasoning, and egg. It should look something like this:
After that, you’ll start layering the sauce, pasta mixture, more sauce, and the remaining cheese.
Assembling the casserole
Start by spreading 2 cups of sauce across the bottom of your dish.
Next, add you pasta/cheese mixture.
Then top with more marinara and the remaining cheese.
Keep in mind this is a base recipe. Add whatever veggies or protein that sound delicious. I’m thinking mushrooms, spinach, black olives, sausage, ground turkey, etc.
Apologies for the awful pics. The lighting in my kitchen is already bad enough. Add daylight savings on top of that and you have the most flat food photography ever. The recipe is all that really matters!
Click below for a direct link to the marinara recipe:
I’d love to hear from you if you make this recipe! It makes my day when you share your pics on Instagram and tag me (@litecravings). Don’t forget to use #litecravingsrecipes to make sure I see it. If I don’t get a chance to scroll through my tags quickly enough, I won’t see your post. I always make a point to look through the hashtags, though, so I’ll see it there!
Unstuffed Shells Casserole
Ingredients
- 11 ounces uncooked jumbo shells (or use any short pasta shape, like penne)
- 3-4 cups Quick Zero SmartPoint Marinara (see below)
- 5 ounces Alouette Garlic and Herb Spreadable Cheese
- 1 cup fat free cottage cheese
- 1 1/4 cup reduced fat shredded mozzarella, divided
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, divided
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- cracked black pepper, to taste
Quick Zero Point Marinara (start this when boiling your pasta water if making the same day)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 28 ounce cans crushed plum tomatoes
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp fresh cracked pepper
- 1 dried bay leaf
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F degrees. Boil pasta 3 minutes less than package directions state. Mine said to cook for 8-10 minutes, so I cooked my shells for 5 minutes.
- Mix in garlic and herb cheese, cottage cheese, 3/4 cup mozzarella, 2 tbsp parmesan, seasonings, and egg in a large bowl. Add in drained pasta and mix together until pasta is fully coated.
- Coat a 13×9 baking dish with cooking spray, then add in two cups of marinara and spread until it evenly covers the bottom of the dish.
- Add the pasta and cheese mixture to the dish. Spread evenly across the marinara sauce.
- Top pasta/cheese mixture with another 1 -2 cups of marinara, depending on how saucy you like your pasta.
- Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella and 2 tbsp parmesan over the top of the casserole. Bake, uncovered, for 30-40 minutes, or until cheese is bubbling at the tops of the shells have started to brown.
- Divide into 8 servings, about 2 cups of shells and sauce combined.
FOR THE QUICK ZERO POINT MARINARA
- In a large skillet or stock pot, saute garlic in cooking spray until slightly brown, about 1 minute.
- Add in tomatoes. Add about 1 cup of water to one of the cans, sloshing around to get the remaining tomatoes out. Add the tomato water to the skillet or pot.
- Add all remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, then simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove bay leaf and serve.
Looks delicious! Whole foods store brand has whole wheat shells, although I think they are a bit smaller than yours. It can be really hard to find different shapes in whole wheat, I’m finding.
Thank you for the tip! I’ll check that out. I think I’d actually like smaller shells in this recipe, since I’m not actually stuffing them. Yeah, it can be hard to find a variety of whole wheat shapes. I check every new store I go into haha.
Have you tried the brown rice pastas? They have many of the traditional pastas like mini shells, lasagna, fettucine, spaghetti, elbows. I will look for the larger shells next time I go to the grocery store. Geri I love your recipes. You are my go to for healthy alternatives!!
Thank you, Charlotte! I have tried a few and find that some brands are way better than others. Banza is pretty good. If they have large shells, I would totally use them in this recipe!
Would it be possible to eliminate the cottage cheese? My girls don’t like ricotta or cottage cheese?
Thank you
Honestly, I hate both ricotta and cottage cheese, but I really can’t tell in this recipe. The cottage cheese just melts in with the mozz, parm, and alouette. I would make it and not tell them it’s in it haha. If you really need to leave it out, maybe add more alouette? It would increase the points, though.
Hi Geri! I made this last night and it was absolutely delicious!! Unfortunately there were no left overs, that’s how good it was! Thanks for another awesome recipe!
Haha so happy to hear this! That’s a good problem to have. 🙂
Loved this and so did our dinner guests! Did not miss a bit of cheesy-ness from a regular ziti. I used the whole grain penne and it worked great. Yay
SO great to hear, Kat! Thank you. I love using whole grain penne in this, too.
Just made this recipe. I added ground turkey. It was amazing!!! Thank you!
Ohhh great idea! SO happy you liked it.
if were to use whole wheat pasta , would the blue points decrease?
I believe whole wheat pasta would decrease the blue points by 1 per serving, but I’m not totally sure. I would try adding the ingredients into your recipe builder just to be safe!
I’m a little late to the party, however, OMG!! This was soooooo good! My husband and I gobbled this up and enjoyed every bite. You get a huge portion for the points. That’s never heard of with pasta recipes. LOL I tweaked it slightly. I like my marinara sweet so I added some monk fruit sweetener. I also added a pound of ground Italian turkey sausage. The store didn’t have Alouette so I had to use the garlic & herb Laughing Cow. The turkey only added a point per serving on blue. Thanks for creating and sharing your recipes! We’ve enjoyed several of them.
This was so easy and so delicious! Not only did my husband love it, but my toddler kept asking for more. This will definitely be in our monthly rotation moving forward!
Love hearing that, Erin!
Oh my this was amazing and so much easier than stuffing shells! I will never go back 🙂
Two thumbs up from the hubby, who double checked to make sure he had leftovers for lunch tomorrow!
I am SO happy you enjoyed and your hubby enjoyed it! I haven’t looked back – it’s so much easier but just as satisfying as stuffed shells (without the work) 🙂
This was AMAZING! Restaurant quality! I put the cheeses, spices and the egg for the “cheese sauce” into my Ninja blender as I don’t love the cottage cheese texture and it worked so well. I also used Rao’s as it’s what I had. Entire family devoured it! Thank you!
Thank you, Megan! Love the idea of blending the cheese mixture together for those who don’t like the curds in the cottage cheese. Also, Rao’s is such a good choice for jarred sauce!
Looking forward to trying this – have you tried with FF Ricotta? No one in my house will touch cottage cheese so I never have it around…and the Alouette – can’t find it anywhere – do you have a substitution suggestion?
Great questions, Shar. I haven’t tried it with FF Ricotta (I typically only find part-skim out here) but I’m sure it would work in this recipe. I’m not a big fan of cottage cheese either, but it melts down while it’s baking so you can’t even tell it’s cottage cheese. Boursin spreadable cheese is similar to Alouette, but you could also use reduced fat cream cheese or goat cheese (which would add a bit of tanginess) and add extra garlic powder and Italian herbs instead. I’m looking forward to hearing how your version turns out!
This was absolutely delicious and easy to make- didn’t taste “healthy diet food,” tasted indulgent and rich. This will be a new go-to recipe!
Hi Hannah, I’m thrilled you enjoyed it! It’s always my goal to make sure that my recipes are just as delicious, just lightened up so I’m glad this one was a winner for you! 🙂