Mostly made as is. I didn't care to hunt down whatever 'Buffalo' mozzarella is so just used regular. (I'll have to check that out since I'm a cheese lover.)and I dont usually have smoked bacon. Not sure how much difference that would have made, because I didn't much see the point of the bacon. May be one of those things you notice more when it's missing, rather than when it's there. And this only filled I think about 2/3 the shells called for & that was not even stuffing them really good. They were pretty good, but not "great." Been quite some time since I've done large shells, so it was certainly something different.