Stuffed macaroni is a savory dish, quite popular in the Italian and Mexican cuisine. The dish is prepared by stuffing boiled and drained macaroni shells with ingredients often in the form of meat (like beef or shrimp) and cheese. Various seasonings and spices are added to the macaroni stuffing mix for enhanced savor and flavor. The stuffed macaroni shells are baked in oven, and often served after pouring over some form of sauce like tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce.
Popular Stuffed Macaroni Recipes
A few popular variations of stuffed macaroni have been discussed below:
- Italian-stuffed macaroni shells- the recipe for this dish suggests preparing the macaroni stuffing mix by cooking together browned ground beef, beaten egg, mozzarella cheese, bread cubes, milk, chopped parsley, and Italian seasoning (a blend of basil, marjoram, oregano, thyme, and rosemary) over low heat. The pre-boiled macaroni shells are then filled with this meat based stuffing mix. Finally they are baked in oven after being bathed in spaghetti sauce.
- Mexican-stuffed macaroni shells- the Mexican stuffed macaroni recipe suggests filling the boiled macaroni shells with ground beef and taco seasoning (Mexican condiment made by combining together garlic powder, chili powder, crushed red pepper, onion powder, paprika, dried oregano, ground cumin, pepper, and salt) mix, and then baking them in oven after topping with chopped onions, diced tomatoes, shredded cheese, salsa, and black olives.
- Shrimp stuffed macaroni- this dish is prepared by stuffing macaroni shells with butter sautéed mixture of shrimp and garlic, with the mix combined with cottage cheese, parmesan cheese, pepper, and chives. Thereafter, macaroni shells stuffed with shrimp mix are placed in a baking tray already containing tomato sauce made by cooking together flour, milk, bouillon granules, tomato paste, and water. This stuffed dish is then baked after pouring over any reserved sauce, and garnishing with paprika.
Stuffed Macaroni Nutritional Information
140 gram of macaroni is enriched with 221 calories, obtained from 1 gram of saturated fat, 43 grams of carbohydrates, and 8 grams of protein. The sugar content and dietary fiber content are around 1 gram and 3 grams respectively. As macaroni is a rich source of carbohydrates, stuffed macaroni is believed to provide lot of energy to the human body. Further, the food product is also low in cholesterol and sodium content, and contains good amount of folic acid and B-vitamins.
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