Staying home on Friday night (no complaint here, so tired by the end of the week, I prefer to stay home on Shabbat night until the time changes) I am always looking for a quick, easy, one dish Shabbat dinner that is still nice. On top of this, I LOVE pasta! All this gluten-free stuff is does not come close to the real thing for me. I try to stay out of pasta, but sometimes it’s just calls my name.

A while ago I bought jumbo shells, and today, I decided it’s time for them to be used. As usual, I decided to improvise, and this is what I did:

About 1/3 of a package of jumbo shells

About 3 tbsp of ricotta cheese

1 small pack of mushrooms

2 small Italian eggplants

1 onion

2 tbsp of tomato paste

a few fresh leaves of basil (mine is growing on my windowsill)

1 clove of garlic

A drop of Balsamic vinegar

spices to taste (I used salt, freshly ground black pepper, turmeric, a bit of Italian seasoning)

About 1 tbsp of shredded cheese (I used Monterrey Jack, but I believe a mix of Mozzarella and Parmesan would be better)

 

I cooked the pasta just so it became soft to work with.

Meanwhile, I fried the onion and mushrooms and added some of them

to the ricotta cheese.

Then, I fried eggplants sliced into rounds

In the oven-proof pan for the final dish, I mixed the tomato paste with a 3-4 tbsp of hot water, garlic and vinegar with spices.

Into this dish I put a layer of mushrooms and fried eggplants.

Then I stuffed my pasta with the ricotta and mushroom mix, and layered the shells on top of the eggplant.

Finally, I added the leftover eggplant, whatever didn’t fit into the first layer, and sprinkled some cheese on top.

 

So, now, all I need to do is to stick this in the oven 20 minutes before the start of Shabbat, and – hopefully – it will be delicious.

So, I am also hoping that right after I take it out, and before the candle-lighting,  I will remember to take a picture of the final dish, and later on update this post with a picture.

Shabbat Shalom!