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 wondering how to adapt this recipe for baking in the oven? I think it sounds delicious, but want to take a casserole over to a new Mom…
This was fabulous! Thanks for sharing!!
Great pasta dish, I added some courgettes to it and works really well. Do you know the nutritional value to this meal mainly the protein and calorie?
I made it for the family and they loved it.
My family enjoyed this. I made it as written, except (lol) I used half and half and put in almost a pound of shells because there was plenty of sauce. I also stirred in a bunch of baby spinach at the end, which I really enjoyed. The sauce had a wonderful creaminess and I thought all of the flavors balanced nicely. I was going to use pre-shredded cheddar but another reviewer commented that the extra-sharp cheddar made a difference so I grated some and used that. Yum!
I’ll have to add spinach next time. Sounds yummy.
Super tasty! Thick, creamy, flavourful sauce! (I don’t get how some reviewers had soupy sauce–let it simmer to thicken!)
I had some leftover herb-y pizza sauce and subbed that for the tomato sauce and Italian seasoning.
Next time I would maybe use half beef and half vegetable stock..it was a little too beefy for me but was quite yummy and will definitely make this again!
This was so good, comfort food. And I agree an adult hamburger helper. I used fusilli pasta, milk instead of cream and added steamed broccoli to the mixture. It was great.
Five stars but be warned: once they taste it, your family will demand that you add it to the dinner rotation (but let’s be fair, once you taste it you’ll agree with them). Velveeta can substitute for the cheddar in a pinch and maintains creaminess when warm, but it solidifies more and doesn’t save nearly as well as the original recipe.
Damn Delicious!! I made this in a pinch tonigt & the family gobbled it up. Yum! And SO VERY FILLING!
Made this tonight, added a half pound of baby bella mushrooms, a bag of organic sugar snap peas, and omitted the tomato sauce and paprika….you can do this recipe a million ways..but the basic recipe is brilliant, easy, and delicious.
Had this for dinner tonight. It was so delicious. The only change, I added zucchini. Any chance to get a little extra serving of veggies is a good thing!
I will try this, but I like my food SPICY!!! So I will add a lot!
Delicious! I simmered the sauce with the beef (made it thicker) used 1/2 & 1/2 instead of heavy cream, and an entire box of pasta. Added crushed red pepper & shredded parmesan cheese on top and it was perfect. Kids went back for seconds.
This was definitely a wonderful creamy dish! I added some Sriracha sauce, because I like the taste of spicy foods, and a few sliced cremini mushrooms (which I always add when cooking a pasta dish) for a little more texture. Very easy to make …
We also added sriracha because we did half mozzarella and couldn’t get much flavor
It was okay, was expecting a different taste, the tomato definitely over powered the cheese. Should have made my own substitutions but seeing as this was my first time making it, I didn’t. Recommend if you’re looking for something easy and quick.
At first thought, I was like, great, another hamburger helper type recipe. But when I made it but added my own touches of fresh white sharp cheddar and bourbon cheese. Very good and my wife who is always the Hell’s Kitchen chef was impressed.
Used only 1.5 cups of beef broth, completely disregarded the cream (didn’t have any and i wanted it thicker), added 650 MLS of pasta sauce instead of 450, used an extra pound of beef and didnt break it up too much, and used mozza cheese instead of cheddar.
I cook lots and my dad likes it all but this recipe?? He grabbed seconds AND told me to write the recipe down so he could use it. Mom almost grabbed seconds but was ultimately too full; it’s filling! We’ve been doing meal prep (making double and freezing half) and this will definitely be one for the freezer!
5/5 Total Win.
My dad suggested that bacon would be pretty good in it…I agree!
I was skeptical about making this because I thought the flavors wouldn’t work well together, boy was I WRONG! This dish is soooo good, the whole family went back for seconds! If you’re unsure about making this like I was, go ahead and do it you won’t regret it ! I didn’t change anything to the recipe.
EXCELLENT!! Made it exactly as written and would not change a thing!!
Great, versatile base recipe. I used Banza chickpea shell pasta, reduced the broth by about 1/4 cup, increased the cream to about a cup, and omitted the meat entirely but wilted some fresh spinach in at the end. Will make this again and again!