Khana Khazana

Stuffed Pasta Shells Mexican Style

When I cook, I love to mix things up. Now by mixing I do not mean with a spoon or ladle but mixing up different cuisines into one. I do not know if you want to call it a bad habit or good, but I do not really have specific measurements for the spices and things I use, because I am so used to eyeballing it, or I can say the way my Mom and Grandma taught me.

Below you will see my recipe for Mexican stuffed pasta shells. I just love Italian and Mexican food, so I thought why not put the two together. I hope you enjoy this delicious pasta recipe with your friends and family.

Ingredients

  • 1 Jumbo Pasta shells (you can also use Manicotti)
  • 1-2 jars of Pasta sauce (you can choose the company)
  • 1 bottle of taco bells hot or mild sauce
  • 2 packets of taco seasoning
  • 1 can of black beans
  • 2 cups of corn
  • 1 cups of bell peppers
  • 2 cups onions
  • 1-2 boxes of Spanish rice (I use La Preferida Spanish rice)
  • 1 bag of cheese (of your choice)
  • 4-5 cloves of garlic
  • Cumin powder (to your taste)
  • Salt (to your taste)
  • Crush pepper or jalapeno or spicy chilly powder
  • Which ever you want to use to make your food spicy

Instruction

Boiling Pasta:

  • Fill a pot with water and put it on the stove in medium heat. Add some salt to the water and bring it to a boil.
  • Once its boiling adds your jumbo pasta box that you got and cook it according to the time on the box.
  • Once the Pasta is cooked drain out the water and put the pasta into a bowl of cold water, so they do not cook further or stick together.

Black bean filling:

  • In a separate pot or pan, add 2 tablespoons of oil. Let the oil heat up and add the chopped onions, cook for 2-3 minutes then add your garlic (you can chop it or shred it). Let it cook for another 2 mins and add your bell peppers. Bell Peppers take a little bit longer to cook so you can add those first if u like and then the onions.
  • Once the bell peppers are halfway cooked add your corn and black beans and cook it all together for about 5 mins.
  • Once you cook it all together, add your seasonings:
  • 1 packet taco seasoning
  • Salt (to your taste)
  • Cumin powder (to your taste)
  • Chili powder (to your taste)
  • Let it all cook for about 5 mins and then taste it to make sure you can taste the spice. Once its good, turn off heat and set your pot or pan to the side to cool down.

Spanish rice:

  • While the black bean filling is cooling, go ahead and make your Spanish rice. I make readymade when I want a fast meal, the company La Preferida has really yummy Spanish rice. All you must do is add the rice into a pot of water and cook it.
  • Once the rice is done, set that aside to cool too. That will be a part of the filling and if you want to eat on the side as well.

Sauce:

  • In pot pour out your pasta sauce (1 bottle first) and add in their half bottle of taco bell hot sauce, and the other 1 packet of taco seasoning. Mix it all up and taste to see if you the sauce has the Mexican flavor, if not then add more taco bell sauce or more taco seasoning.

Assembling the dish:

  • Now that everything is ready its time to assemble dish
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Celsius
  • In a casserole pan at the bottom add some sauce that you made. Enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Then one by one start to take your jumbo pasta shell and add some of the rice you made and on top add the black bean filling and a little bit of sauce on top.
  • Each of your pasta shells should have rice first and then black bean filling it.
  • Start to put the pasts shells into the casserole pan as many as you can fit
    • In mine I usually fit 10-to 12 pasta shells.
  • After you put the shells in the pans on top you will add more of the sauce.
    • I like mine to be a little saucier, so I add more sauce to mine.
  • Once you add the sauce top of the pan with cheese of you choose.
    • I use Mexican cheese
  • Once your oven is preheated, put your pan in the oven and cook for 10-15 mins
    • Until the cheeses melts and gets a little brown.
  • Remember this is a fusion dish, so you can top it with whatever toppings you like. Here are a few examples:
    • Sour cream
    • Guacamole
    • Salsa
    • Chives

I hope you enjoy this fusion of Italian and Mexican food!