We can’t believe it’s matchday again! Although we have to confess that here at Casa Linguini we have been following religiously following all of the football the UEFA Euro Cup 2020/2021 has been throwing at us, Matchday with a capital “M” is when the Azzurri play!
Another big night of football with an interesting game against our very own neighbours: the Swiss. Even though it can be argued that either chocolate and cheese equally represent this country, we thought that a savoury snack would best suit this late evening game, possibly accompanied by a nice chilled beer.
So this our Match time munchie #2: Cheese-stuffed Conchiglioni. This actually originates from a family summer recipe for pasta salad: when it would get too hot to turn the hobs on, my mum would make this the night before to have straight from the fridge for lunch. She would just chop some tomatoes, olives, Swiss cheese and pine nuts and then add the pasta on top of the ingredients straight from the drainer so that the cheese would melt and form nice little clusters. A spoonful of olive oil drizzled on top and that’s it: lunch sorted.
However, for it to be called a ‘Match time munchie‘ we decided to turn this from a pasta salad that would be scooped up from a big bowl into (almost) bite-sized canapés.
This recipe is very forgiving: we have provided rough quantities but you can of course tweak them to your preference. We have used some jumbo-sized pasta shells but you can use ‘paccheri’ and stuff them up (the process might be a bit longer though) or just decide to reverse it back into the salad version, whatever tickles your fancy!
Cheese-stuffed Conchiglioni
Ingredients
- 120 g Conchiglioni (Pasta shells) I used 12 'jumpo-sized' ones for this recipe
- 30 g Pitted black olives
- 4-5 slices Swiss cheese You can substitute for cheddar or any melting cheese of your choice
- 20 g pine nuts
- 4-5 Medium salad tomatoes
- 1 pinch Salt for seasoning
- 2 tbsp Coarse salt for cooking the pasta shells
Optional
- Basil, oregano, thyme, black pepper
Instructions
- Chop the tomatoes, season with a pinch of salt and put aside to allow for some of the water to come out
- Cook the pasta shells in boiling water with 2 tbsps of coarse sea salt, making sure you drain them 'al dente'
- In the meanwhile, chop the rest of the ingredients roughly and put aside
- Once the pasta shells are ready, let them to cool just enough so that they can be handled. In the meanwhile add the tomatoes to the rest of the chopped ingredients, making sure you reserve some of the water aside. Adjust the salt if needed: the quantity depends on the saltiness of your black olives and cheese.
- Distribute the filling among the pasta shells equally, there's no specific quantity but you should be able to use roughtly one tablespoon per each shell. Add some more grated cheese and herbs on top if you like.
- Grill in the oven for 5 or until the cheese melts and the shells become a bit golden on top.
