Creamy Pesto Vegan Filled Pasta Shells

This delicious Creamy Pesto Vegan Filled Pasta Shells makes an impressive mid-week meal. Giant pasta shells filled with a creamy vegan cheese and pesto mix, baked with a simple tomato sauce. Serve hot straight from the oven with fresh basil leaves. Recipe created by our mates at Blue Diamond Almonds UK.

Watch the recipe video here:

DIRECTIONS

INGREDIENTS

Creamy Pesto Vegan Filled Pasta Shells

  • 10 Conchiglioni large pasta shells

Pasta filling

Tomato sauce

  • 1 tbsp. rapeseed oil
  • 1 clove garlic
  • ½ red onion, finely chopped
  • 390g passata
  • 6 fresh cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 30ml Unsweetened Almond Breeze Almond Milk
  • Pinch of salt
  • Few twists of black pepper

To serve

  • Fresh basil leaves

METHOD

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 190°C.
  2. Par-cook the pasta shells for 10 minutes, drain and set to one-side.
  3. To make the pasta filling – finely chop the vegan Greek cheese into small pieces and add to a bowl. Add 4 tablespoons of vegan pesto, pour in the Unsweetened Almond Breeze Almond Milk, the zest of ½ lemon and a few twists of black pepper. Use the back of a spoon to press the vegan Greek cheese and the rest of the ingredients into a paste (don’t worry if some of the vegan cheese stays in small pieces).
  4. To make the tomato sauce, finely chop the onion and garlic. Heat the oil in a pan and cook the onion and garlic for a few minutes until the onion starts to soften. Add the chopped cherry tomatoes and cook with the onion for a couple of minutes before pouring in the passata, Unsweetened Almond Breeze and seasoning. Allow the tomato sauce to simmer and cook for a further 10 minutes.
  5. Fill each pasta shell with the creamy vegan cheese and pesto filling.
  6. Pour the cooked tomato sauce into an oven proof dish (roughly 25cm x 18cm) and set the filled pasta shells into the sauce.
  7. Cover the oven proof dish with foil, place in the oven on the middle shelf and bake for 18 minutes.
  8. Remove from the oven, scatter with fresh basil leaves and serve immediately.
Serves 6
Prep Time 50 minutes