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
why i love this recipe
- All that cream sauce
- All that pasta, just collecting that creaminess
- The perfectly crumbled ground beef, again, soaking up every last drop of that creamy, heavenly goodness
- Made in 30-40 min, a true weeknight superhero
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. Ugh, I can’t even talk about this anymore because now I need to make this for dinner again for the 14th time.
tips and tricks for success
- Use your favorite meat. Ground beef, chicken or turkey will all work very well here.
- Add in leafy greens. This is a great recipe to sneak in leafy greens for those picky eaters. Spinach, kale, collard greens, swiss chard, or arugula are all great options.
- Add the cream slowly. Always add the heavy cream at the very end, pouring very slowly to prevent curdling.
- Serve with crusty bread. Serve with all the homemade crusty bread for dipping, sopping and dunking!
- Freeze as needed. Let cool completely; portion into plastic freezer bags in individual servings, squeezing out any excess air before sealing. Lay the bags flat in a single layer in the freezer (this will help them freeze quickly). To reheat, thaw overnight in the fridge, reheating over low heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through.
what to serve with creamy beef and shells
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.
Video
Did you make this recipe?
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This meal was just ok. I must say that the recipe is poorly written which is why some people may end up with a runny meal. No where on the recipe does it tell you to take the meat out of the pan and then, work on your sauce. Also, it doesn’t tell you when to put the cheese in. Unless you watch the video, there is no way you will be able to follow the recipe.
Hi Frances!
So the recipe indicates to set the meat aside in step 2:
2. Heat olive oil in a large 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.
The recipe indicates to add the cheese in step 6:
6. 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.
I find it very helpful to read through a recipe at least twice prior to cooking. 🙂
This is yummy! Looked a little like “hamburger helper” at first, but tastes like high-end Italian! I added a half cup of chopped green olives, which gives it a little extra tang. It was a big hit with my family! Thank you! 🙂
This is something my whole family enjoys. I make it quite often!
I make this all time and we live it! But with cornonavirus spreading we are looking to save anywhere we can. So is this dish freezer friendly if we hav leftovers? Anybody have experience freezing it? If so how long does it last in freezer.
Thanks for any responses you have.
Anything like this will freeze fine, especially with a thick sauce that will keep things covered and prevent freezer burn. No worries. I had Turkey Soup that was 2.5 years old yesterday, just to see, and it was fine!
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.