These Pumpkin Stuffed Mussels make a great vegetarian main dish! Three cheeses, spinach, and mashed pumpkin are simmered in a quick marinara.
This position was created in partnership with Wolf. All opinions are ours.
It’s time to get the kitchen back, folks. You may have seen my recent trip to Madison, Wisconsin to visit one of our favorite brands to work with, Wolf. Why do we have a soft spot for the brand? Because wolf is just like us passionate about developing a passion for cooking. Over the past few years, Wolf has collected many educational and inspirational resources on how to cook more (like this pretty amazing video). These pumpkin-stuffed mussels are about taking back the kitchen! Why? Read on for our cooking tips that will make this stuffed mussel recipe delicious and doable.
Related: 12 healthy pumpkin recipes
Reclaim the kitchen… with pumpkin-filled bowls
This Pumpkin Stuffed Mussels recipe is part of the #ReclaimtheKitchen initiative Demystify home cooking by sharing handy tips, tools, and techniques to help you reclaim your kitchen. We have created cozy autumn shells, which can be suitable for a dinner with friends or a romantic date.
The filling is gooey and cozy: hearty pumpkin topped with ricotta and mozzarella cheese, with a dash of fresh sage. The stuffed mussels are then simmered in our quick tomato sauce, which complements the filling without overwhelming it. This is an impressive and eye-catching vegetarian entree perfect for feeding a crowd. It makes for a cozy fall meal or even a vegetarian Thanksgiving main course.
Although these pumpkin-filled shells take a little time to put the components together, they’re perfect for a celebration. Even better, the recipe illustrates some tools (or “tricks”) essential to reclaiming the kitchen. Ready to start?
Tip 1: This is how you quickly make a tomato sauce
Here’s a must-have marinara sauce that’s flavorful and literally takes 5 minutes to make. It’s actually…pizza sauce! Yes, our easy homemade pizza sauce recipe is perfect for pasta too. And it’s that simple: just put the ingredients in the blender and puree! Another great option is our homemade spaghetti sauce, which also includes meat or vegetable crumbs.
If you don’t have 5 minutes, you can always use your favorite jar of store-bought marinara (just make sure it’s high quality).
Tip 2: How to salt pasta water
Unless you’re an Italian grandmother, you might not know this secret. Salt the water for your pasta generously! Why? This results in tastier noodles. And did you know that water is supposed to taste salty…like salt water? When filling a giant jar, we typically use about 1 tablespoon of kosher salt. Don’t worry, you won’t use as much salt as it will dissolve in the water that will eventually be drained.
Tip 3: How to wither greens quickly
For this Pumpkin Stuffed Mussels recipe, we used one of our favorite tricks to “cook” the spinach without actually cooking the whole thing. Instead of cooking it on the stove and messing it up yet another pan, this is what you do: Use boiling pasta water to wilt veggies!
Simply place the spinach leaves in the colander where you will drain the pasta. Then pour some boiling water from the pan over the spinach. About half the water in the pot should be enough to completely wilt the spinach. Then use tongs to remove the spinach from the boil and finish draining your pasta. If you already use spinach or veggies in pasta, this is a great way to cook it without spoiling a pan. (We use this technique to cook red peppers in our Napa Cabbage Peanut Noodles.)
Tip 4: Chop the sage quickly
This pumpkin-stuffed mussels recipe is infused with fall-flavored herb sage. Chopping the sage quickly can speed up this recipe. This trick can be used for any leafy or green grass:
- Crumple the leaves. This means stacking the leaves, rolling them up, and then slicing them thinly. watch this video
- Arrange the thin slices together and slice across, resulting in a thin chop.
We hope you enjoy these Pumpkin Stuffed Shells! To learn more about #ReclaimtheKitchen, visit the Reclaim the Kitchen website.
Related: Another popular Italian recipe – our Pizza Margherita!
This Pumpkin Stuffed Mussels recipe is…
Vegetarian. For gluten-free pasta, use gluten-free pasta.
The description
These Pumpkin Stuffed Mussels make a great vegetarian main course! Two cheeses, spinach, and mashed pumpkin are simmered in a quick marinara.
- 12 ounces huge clams
- Homemade Spaghetti Sauce, easy homemade double pizza sauce recipe (you can use a 28-ounce can of tomatoes), or a 28-ounce jar of store-bought marinara sauce
- 5 ounces spinach leaves
- 1 cup Ricotta cheese
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
- 151 ounce pumpkin puree
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1½ tablespoons finely chopped sage
- 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 egg
- 2/3 cup grated Pecorino or Parmesan for garnish
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Cook the mussels al dente according to package directions.
- Make homemade spaghetti sauce or easy homemade pizza sauce.
- When the pasta is cooked, use the boiling pasta water to wilt the spinach. To prepare, place the spinach leaves in the sieve. Once pasta is al dente, remove from heat and add enough boiling water to soften completely. Place the pot back on the stove and use a spoon to scoop the hot vegetables into a bowl, then drain the noodles in the colander. Add the pasta to the pan with a little olive oil to keep them from sticking. Squeeze all the water out of the vegetables with a paper towel, then roughly chop them.
- For the filling, combine the chopped spinach with the ricotta, mozzarella, pumpkin puree, chili powder, nutmeg, sage, salt, and some black peppercorns in a medium bowl. Taste and season to taste. Then add the egg.
- Spread the tomato sauce in the bottom of the 9×13 and 9×9 baking pans. Fill each shell with the filling, then arrange them in a single layer in the ovenproof shells: 24 in the 9×13 and 15 in the 9×9.
- Top each dish with pecorino cheese or grated parmesan. Bake until cheese is melted and filling is hot, about 20 minutes.
- Category: main course
- Method: Cooked
- Kitchen: Italian
Keywords: Recipe for Stuffed Clams, Stuffed Clams, Pumpkin Stuffed Clams, Pumpkin Pasta, Spinach, Spinach Stuffed Clams, Vegetarian, Thanksgiving, Pumpkin Recipes
Looking for pumpkin recipes?
Aside from this Pumpkin Stuffed Mussels recipe, here are some of our favorite pumpkin recipes:
