Creamy Beef and Shells
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A quick/easy ground beef recipe, this is a pasta dish that will be on your dinner table all week long! So creamy and so comforting!
Featured Comment
I cannot even begin to tell you how much of this pasta I ate on probably 13 different occasions.
Well, first, I should tell you that no plating of any kind was involved here.
Nope. This is clearly a straight-out-of-the-skillet type dinner. Just grab your fork and dig right in.
All that cream sauce. All that pasta, just collecting that creaminess. And the perfectly crumbled ground beef, again, soaking up every last drop of that creamy, heavenly goodness.
Ugh, I can’t even talk about this anymore because now I need to make this for dinner. Again. For the 14th time.
Tools For This Recipe
Large cast iron skillet
Creamy Beef and Shells: Frequently Asked Questions
Not at all! Ground pork or ground turkey can be used instead of ground beef.
Tomato sauce, in the US, is tomato puree typically cooked down for a thick, smooth consistency with a relatively sweet flavor. Passata is simply uncooked tomato purée. You can use passata in place of tomato sauce, but it is not a completely equal substitute.
Heavy cream (or heavy whipping cream) has one of the highest fat contents with about 36-40% fat. Half and half or whole milk are suitable substitutes, but will yield a lighter result.
Yes! You can freeze the leftovers in individual freezer bags, thaw overnight, and reheat on the stovetop.
Creamy Beef and Shells
Ingredients
- 8 ounces medium pasta shells
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound ground beef
- ½ medium sweet onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 ½ teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 cups beef stock
- 1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 6 ounces shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese, about 1 1/2 cups
Equipment
Instructions
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; drain well.
- Heat olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add ground beef and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks; drain excess fat. Set aside.
- Add onion to the skillet, and cook, stirring frequently, until translucent, about 2-3 minutes.
- Stir in garlic and Italian seasoning until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute.
- Gradually whisk in beef stock and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced and slightly thickened, about 6-8 minutes.
- Stir in pasta, beef and heavy cream until heated through, about 1-2 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir in cheese until melted, about 2 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
Did you make this recipe?
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I’m 17 years old and this was very easy for me and my parents and sister loved it. If I can do it, so can you 🙂
This was fairly easy and was good. I would make it again.
This IS the BEST recipe!!!! I LOVE it. My 85 yr old father who swears he dies not like pasta or pasta dishes LOVED it. My husband and picky Mother in law loved it. I cannot thank you enough.
It was easy , quick amd DELICIOUS!!! I didnt have heavy cream , so i had to use half n half, and i added velveeta and baby bel cheese( with some sharp cheddar) ,because that’s what i had!
I just finished cooking this quick and simple meal and not only did it smell good but the taste was lip smacking good lol..I only had milk and I added left over bacon and to complete the meal I added homemade drop biscuits and salad, thanks for this bowl of comfort goodness…
A winner with my family! My husband went back for seconds!
This was delicious! ❤️ Does anyone know how many servings this makes and what the calorie count per serving is?
Made it today! Fantastic!!
I made this tonight with a spinach, strawberry and feta salad. Delicious! I used a whole box of pasta and 1.5 lbs ground beef, otherwise no substitutions. We have plenty of leftovers for lunches this week, which is great while homeschooling!
I’ve made this four times now. This isn’t the type of meat that i typically eat – I’m not a big noodle or casserole person… but this is delicious and easy to make! I use part pepper jack and part sharp cheddar and I also add a little cayenne or red pepper flakes.
Amazing! Added mushroom and spinach, substituted the cheddar cheese for 1/2 a cup of mozzarella and it was phenomenal. Will definitely be making this again!
Love this pasta! So good! Has anyone tried to freeze this?
This was alright for dinner tonight. I followed the recipe exactly. I liked it…my 3 kids..not so much.
This recipe is so delicious. But when it says stock its really calling for 2 cups of beef broth. I made the mistake of.picking up stock and it made it extremely salty and I had to add water to dilute the stock.
Delish !! My 13 and 17 year old boys loved it! I used 2 lbs. of chop meat and 1lb of shells since they are hungry growing boys but I kept the rest the same although I needed a covid substitution for heavy cream so i used 3/4 brick of cream cheese. It came out so creamy.
It was so very good!! I used a can of diced tomato’s also in place of the tomato paste. It was very flavorful. I followed the rest of the recipe to a T. So good! It did not turn out soupy at all. I will make this again for sure. Thank you for the recipe!
So good the next day. First night it was soupy (I’m not the best cook) but second day it heats up perfectly. Thanks so much for this recipe. FYI didn’t have shells so used elbows.
Was way to soupy. The roux needs more fat.
I will make it again.
Made this today but substituted a can of diced tomatos instead of tomato sauce and it turned out great!!!
Definitely will make again as the family enjoyed it and it was very easy to make. Also used macaroni noodles as that was all i had on hand.
Super easy and came out PERFECT! I didn’t have heavy cream so I used half and half and about 2tbsp of butter. Sat well at low heat with me stirring occasionally while I waited for my fiancé to get home.