5 stuffed pasta recipes

Tri-pasta salad combines ziti, bow-tie, and spinach rotini with tri-color peppers, olives, and capers in a no-oil herbed red wine vinaigrette. Colorful, tangy, and low-fat for picnics and potlucks.

Manicotti shells stuffed with water-packed tuna, nonfat cottage cheese, lemon, and dill, topped with a creamy yogurt-cottage cheese sauce and Parmesan. A high-protein, low-fat spin on stuffed pasta that's ready in an hour.

Chicken and spinach stuffed shells pulverize cooked chicken breast with Italian seasoning, fennel, and spinach into a savory paste, then bake inside jumbo pasta shells under your favorite sauce.

Ravioli with sweetbreads filling: a classic French-Italian preparation of ground veal sweetbreads, shoulder, shallots, and Cognac baked into a rich pasta stuffing. Old-world fine dining at home.

Picante red sauce blended from roasted red bell pepper, diced tomatoes with green chiles, soy sauce, umeboshi vinegar, and basil. A smoky, tangy all-purpose sauce for pasta, stuffed peppers, or cabbage rolls.