Stuffed Shells

For some reason I have really wanted to eat some kind of stuffed pasta dish. Tonight, I made a delicious vegan version. It turns out that stuffed shells are a little bit of a pain in the butt to make, and quite messy. It was worth it though, because they tasted good enough to feed vegans and non-vegans alike. I couldn't find a recipe that I liked (or that I had all the ingredients for), but this is how I made them:

First, make tofu from scratch. This is not as complicated a procedure as it sounds, but I will have to write another post about this. You could easily use firm or extra firm tofu from the store.

Boil the stuffed shells until al dente. Run them under cold water and pour a little olive oil over them. Let sit in a safe place until later.

Crush up a handful of pine nuts with a rolling pin and toast them until golden brown.

Cook 1 cup dried canolini beans until very soft. Or, if you use canned beans, you don't have to cook them. Put soft beans in food processor and blend with oil and/or water until very smooth. Blend in some basil, oregano, a little thyme, and salt.

Defrost frozen spinach, squeeze out extra moisture and saute briefly in some oil and garlic.

In a bowl mix up the pine nuts, bean mixture, and spinach. Crumble up the tofu into little pieces and mix that in.

Put a little tomato sauce in the bottom of the pan. Put the mixture inside the shells and line them up in the pan. Put some more sauce on top. Bake covered for about 30 minutes, then uncovered for 15 minutes.