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.
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Great recipe! I added potatoes and petite diced tomatoes and a bit less beef broth. Yummy yummy!
Truly delicious! I didn’t have beef stock so used chicken stock and a splash of red wine. I also used a blend of shredded cheddar and shredded mozzarella and used penne pasta since that’s what I had on hand. Otherwise followed recipe exactly. Will definitely make again! Thanks!
This was absolutely delicious! I am allergic to beef, so I used ground turkey and chicken broth and my whole family really enjoyed it!
Delicious! I added more garlic and cheese, and it was really good-definitely a hit with my family!
Pretty bland. Really runny, might be better to use a 1/4 lb more meat & a whole box of the shells. It’s like cheeseburger soup.
Fantastic and easy to make, people saying its soupy are likely not allowing the sauce to properly thicken. I would also suggest adding some red pepper flakes and serving with pecorino romano.
This was sooo yummy! The kids wanted leftovers in their lunchboxes the next day. Another new family favorite recipe thanks to Damn Delicious. Thank you!
Delicious! This is a basic weeknight meal but the flavor elevates it to the next level. My picky 5 year old and super picky 3 year old both loved it! The only change I made to the recipe was I used half and half instead of heavy cream and I wouldn’t change a thing!
SO YUMMY! DO YOU HAVE THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR SLOW COOKER?
Pasta…. one of my favourite dish almost a day in week i try pasta . i definitely try this this weekend . by the way cheesy pasta is awesome… share that recipe next
Thanks for sharing guys
Thank you for this recipe! My whole family enjoyed it including my picky toddler boys!
It’s pretty good, I doubled it for my family cuz I will be gone a lot over the next few days. I used a can of tomato sauce and a partial jar of spaghetti sauce. I will make again for sure.
I made it and thought it was delicious. Hubby liked it and so did my 10 month old. Thanks for the recipe!
Loved this! However, I used rigatoni noodles instead, and I skipped the onion as I have a strong dislike for those nasty smelling things! But it was so creamy and such good flavor!
Very good! Will definitely make again.
This is a new family favourite for sure! For others who are trying to puzzle out the sauce-to-pasta ratio, as I was, know that you can absolutely make the full package of pasta shells (16 oz) and still have PLENTY of yummy sauce! No need to double the sauce recipe. Also, it always takes me longer than 3-5 minutes to brown ground beef, but other than that the total prep/cook time is pretty accurate. Our baby loved this recipe, too(:
I agree! Definitely make the whole package 16oz of pasta. You will have plenty of sauce. Very tasty!
I’ve made this before as written and it is yummy! But I’m wondering, could you use Italian sausage instead of the ground beef? Would the flavors mesh well with that? Thanks for feedback from anyone who has tried!
Absolutely! That sounds amazing, Kay!
My husband usually does the cooking but he spent all day working on my car so my inexperienced cooking self whupped this up. So good and our 18 month old devoured it. Thanks for the recipe!!
This was awesome, we put a little fennel seed ,but made it exactly to your recipe. Just perfect.
Thanks for sharing!!
Would it turn out just as good using 2% rather than heavy cream! As always your recipes are so yummy!!
Heavy cream would be truly best but you can certainly substitute 2% milk. 🙂
This turned out really good. I didn’t have beef stock so I used 3 cups of beef gravy. I didnt have tomato sauce so I used diced tomatoes. I didn’t need to add any salt.