Creamy Beef and Shells
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our privacy policy for details.
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?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
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!
Made this tonight! I did make a substitution of the shells with cheese tortellini, opted out of the cheddar cheese and added parmesan instead! I love the Italian flavor, so I probably tripled the seasoning. Overall, great quick and easy dinner with a side salad!
Amazing recipe and we really enjoyed it! This is my typical recipe but with cream, cheese, and beef broth added. It added such wonderful flavor I wouldn’t have thought to put myself. One thing I messed up on was cooking the beef fully with the onions along with sauce and beef broth, which definitely overcooked the beef. After all the cheese added, the beef actually came out really good even though it was overcooked. Note that I made sure the beef was in pretty small pieces. Will make again!
Made this last night. Yummmmy! I didn’t have tomato sauce so I read up on how to make some up. Used a Can of tomato paste, equal parts Hot pasta water, dash of red wine, splash of olive oil, Paprika, oregano, Marjoram and salt and pepper (just a small amount of each). Came out pretty dang good! Also, someone mentioned using the pasta water for the beef bouillon (mixed with Better than Bouillon) and I thought that was such a great idea. Added more flavor to the bouillon. If applicable, I’m going to start using pasta water more often for other parts of a recipe, why throw it all out? This really was good and satisfied all the hungry guys in the house – was told it was “good grub”.
Excellent dinner! I added a can of diced tomatoes for myself. Would have been perfect without it, though.
Delish!! Easy & fast weeknight meal
I made this tonight. Stuck to the recipe. The only thing I changed was I added 1 cup of heavy cream instead of 3/4s.
It was delicious and my family all really loved it.
I have made this a number of times at this point and it’s truly heavenly! Definitely a crave worthy dish!
Great mid week meal that can easily be doubled to keep In the freezer for future. Next time I make I will likely cut down in the flour as it make mine a bit too thick.
This was such an amazing recipe. I forgot to add the beef broth but it still came out really good. I did add salt when I was done b/c it is a bit bland.
This dish is delicious. It is easy to make and is the adult version of macaroni and cheese
So, so good! And my hubby can’t stop raving about the sauce! Made it just as written and it is definitely a keeper… make sure to serve some bread or rolls on the side so that you can enjoy every last bit!
This dish is delicious. It is easy to make and is the adult version of macaroni and cheese….with a few more tasty ingredients!
Delicious!
This was delicious, found the recipe on Pintrest and was not sure if it would be too plain. Especially after reading the reviews. But I needed a recipe to use up some cheese, and I had most of the ingredients. It was really good, but next time I may spice it up since I like some heat in my food and more veggies. I did have a few substitutions because it’s what I had in my cabinet. I used sloppy joe sauce since I did not have tomato sauce (will do this again!), sharp cheddar cheese, a little more garlic because everything is better with more garlic, I did not have beef broth so I used vegetable stock, and I topped it with fresh parsley at the end. Based on some of the other reviews, just make sure you follow the recipe and take the time to thicken the sauce before adding the beef, heavy cream, and pasta back in. Thanks for the delicious recipe!
I stirred in a little creole seasoning into mine. It was delicious. I’ll try the sloppy joe mix as well
I would not have changed anything, but didn’t have shells. Substituted egg noodles, but otherwise followed exactly. Everyone loved it, great recipe that we will come back to. Thanks for sharing!
I tweaked the recipe a little by substituting ground turkey for the ground beef and added a 1/2 lb of maple flavored sausage and the family loved it!!! Even with 2 kiddos whom are picky eaters. BTW, this coming from a guy who only cooks three things well, and tried cooking this for the first time. LOL! Thank you so much for posting this!