Large shells or conchiglioni, as they are called in Italy, are prepared with various fillings. This is a hearty and not too troublesome dish, which is not a boring variation of regular pasta. Refresh your usual menu and make shells with mushrooms in a gentle béchamel sauce.
Shells with mushrooms in béchamel sauce: a recipe
Ingredients:
- 200 g conchiglioni (large pasta shells);
- 250 g of champignons;
- 1 onion;
- 100 g of hard cheese;
- 10 g of parsley;
- salt;
- 2 tbsp. butter;
- vegetable oil;
For the sauce:
- 3 tbsp. butter;
- 2 tbsp. flour;
- 2 tbsp. milk 2, 5-3, 5% fat;
- 0.5 tsp salt;
- a pinch of ground black pepper and nutmeg.
Instead of fresh mushrooms, a frozen product is quite suitable. In this case, buy chopped mushrooms right away so that, without defrosting, send them to the pan.
Wash the mushrooms, dry and cut into small slices. Peel the onion, cut into quarters and chop finely. Heat vegetable oil in a skillet. Fry the onion in it until soft and transparent, stirring constantly for 3-4 minutes over medium heat. Then add chopped mushrooms to it and cook everything together for 7-10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste, remove from heat and chill.
Boil water in a saucepan, add salt and dip dry conciglioni into it. Cook for as many minutes as indicated on the package, usually 8 minutes. Remember to stir the pasta to prevent it from burning to the bottom of the dish. Transfer them to a strainer or colander, rinse with cold water and pour over with vegetable oil so that they do not stick together. Stuff each shell with mushroom fry about 1 tsp. Grease an ovenproof dish with butter and place the prepared products in it with the flaps facing up.
Mushroom shells in béchamel sauce: preparation
If lumps do form in the béchamel sauce, rub it through a sieve or cheesecloth after cooling.
Make bechamel. To do this, put a saucepan on low heat and melt the butter in it. Add flour in small portions, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon or spatula. Pour in milk slowly and stir everything well so that there are no lumps. Increase the heating temperature, bring the sauce to a boil, simmer a little and simmer for another 5 minutes over low heat again. Season it with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Preheat oven to 180oC. Mix the white gravy with chopped herbs, pour over the mushroom-filled shells and bake for 20 minutes. Grate the cheese on a fine grater, sprinkle it evenly on an almost finished dish and send it to the oven for another 5-7 minutes until a brown crust appears. Divide the hot meal into 4 portions and serve.
