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
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Hi what kind of tomato sauce? Is it ketchup or as in condensed tomato soup
Canned tomato sauce is a cooked purée of unseasoned tomatoes.
This is yummy but there is couple things about it.
I feel like the Italian seasoning is a bit overwhelming so you could lessen the amount if you don’t love Italian seasoning, and the second thing I thing the extra sharp cheese is a bit much but you could definitely do regular sharp and be just fine or even regular cheddar. All a matter of preference. But it is basically like made from scratch hamburger helper and tastes much better than the box stuff. definitely a great quick easy meal for a week night.I will probably make this again with a few adjustments.
Hi! Quick question- could you cook the beef along with the onion, garlic and Italian seasoning? Or does the beef absorb some flavor from the sauce later on? I am big on making sure the beef has flavor!
I am so excited to try this dish though!!
You can certainly try to cook the ground beef with the onion, garlic and Italian seasoning but if it is all set aside, the sauce will not absorb any of these flavors. If the beef is not set aside, you run the risk of overcooking it. Hope that helps, Christy!
5 stars. Wife doesn’t eat pasta or tomato. She’s on her third bowl. She suggested garlic bread to go with it. I used venison, added 1/4 too much heavy cream, had to simmer down. Thanks for keeper.
It LOOKS delicious, SMELLS delicious, but no flavor at all. I believe if I would have seasoned my meat like I normally do before hand it would of been perfect. Still ate it, and will totally cook again, just going to add more spice.
Tasty, Delicious! My entire family loved this dish. I will definitely be making this again!
Delicious! The whole family loved this easy to make pasta. The only difference I made was I added not by measurement garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper to the meat prior to browning for added flavor. I also added 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese. I finished off with a little more salt and pepper. This will definitely be made again! Thank you
Does anyone know the calorie content? I apologize for leaving this on your post, but I haven’t made it to be able to write a review. Thanks!
I made this tonight and it was delicious! It fed my family of 4 perfectly. Reminds me of a cross between hamburger helper and a tomato cream sauce dish. I added fresh parsley at the end, and my kids opted to add sliced olives in with it. Very good!
My kids loved this! I will definitely be putting this in the dinner rotation.
So good my husband and I loved it. There is only a tiny bit left I feel I should eat it now at 10am or he will get to it. Thanks for a great and easy recipe.
I made just as recipe suggests and it was delicious! Actually going to make again this week. A hit with the entire family and a great make ahead meal to take to work.
Happy you enjoyed it!
This was delicious! Used ground turkey, and 1/2 c cream cheese instead of heavy cream because that’s what I had.
Great!
Delicious! Easy to make and tastes great on a cold chilly Missouri day.
Awesome! Stay warm!
Delicious!! Thank you for the wonderful, comforting family friendly recipe! So easy to make and the leftovers are just as yummy! Perfect winter meal. 🙂
Sweet! Thanks!
I have a question. Do you sauté the onions in a separate pan? If yes or no don’t you need fat for flour? I’m confused.
Mimi
Mimi, have you tried watching the instructional video above the recipe? It will be very helpful to answer these questions! 🙂
I don’t see a video? I already made it but had similar questions. 🙂 It was very good, so I must have done OK. Very high in calories (yikes!) but super delicious. Everyone in the house gave it rave reviews!
The video is available right above the recipe card.
Just wanted to say to all the haters out there, maybe you should just go out to eat. That being said I rarely if ever follow anyone’s recipe’s including my own. I believe that recipe’s are just a starting place for inspiration to create your own flavors. I know there are times when I have absolutely no idea on what to make that’s when I find a recipe and go from there. I see what is in a recipe and take it to a place where I want to be. The first and most important rule to good cooking is to continually taste the recipe along the way to ensure you “like” it and if not make necessary changes.
I made this tonight for dinner and BANG, BAM , BOOM. What a dish! I had all the ingredients did it like it says… perfect. The wife loved it I loved it, this will remain in my dinner arsenal. I use many recipes from this website and tweak them around to make many different dishes, this one rides as is. Thank you for an easy delicious recipe.
I accidentally bought chicken stock instead! I also forgot the flour step, so after adding the Tomato sauce and stock, I whisked together a dab of water and cornstarch and it thickened well. I will definitely follow more carefully next time. Even with my my mistakes it was delicious! Simple and satisfying!
So much for me trying to go keto. I’ll try again when this pot of delicious is gone…. maybe…. Thanks for this recipe, the family and I loved it. It’s definitely going into the regular rotation. It certainly lives up to the name of your blog!
Just made this for the first time. Everyone is right; cook the entire 16 oz box of shell pasta; even then there is still sauce to spare! I added a bag of chopped baby spinach, and it incorporated nicely. I kept warning my family that this wasn’t a bolognese, just a quick homemade Hamburger Helper-type dish, but nobody cared at all, they were just so happy to eat it! Even my husband, who is particularly picky and a total pasta snob, loved it. I gave this 5 stars for its great payoff for a quick, easy to prepare weeknight meal!
This dish really delivers! Decadent, rich and creamy and so satisfying. I made it (as I always do) exactly as the recipe called for. One of the best things about this dish is you probably have everything on hand. Honestly I have yet to be disappointed in any recipe I have gotten here. Love this site! Been following for years and it has become my go to for all recipes. I am an experienced cook and love the simplicity in which the recipes are explained. The pictures and stories are great too. Damn Delicious says it perfectly!