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!
This was overall pretty easy to put together and was just so yummy!!!
I’ve been making this for a few years, but I found a nice way to switch it up. I use taco seasoning instead of Italian for a delish taco pasta! Top with green onions, cheddar and tomato. So good!!!
I live with 4 picky children. They and us adults love this recipe. Perfect as is.
We did and a can of rotel once, that was great for the adults but loss the kids lol.
Substitute ground beef for ground chicken and also used chicken broth instead of beef and WOOOOOOW!!! This is mouth watering good and my husband asks for this dish once a week. Absolutely D E L I C I O U S!!
It’s a keeper! Took longer for me to prepare than posted; however, it was easy and even the picky eater liked it.
So easy and tasty. I highly recommend this dish. Hubby really enjoyed this dish and had two servings! I had to make a couple of adjustments for the items I had on hand. I used regular milk, sweet sausage and rotini noodles. The basic recipe rocks, well done.
This IS DAMN DELICIOUS. Last night making this only had French onion soup, no beef stock-Boo.. what a great mistake. 4qt pan, 5 c left over. Sooo delicious. Thank you!!
Yes this was damn delicious and so easy! I added a grated courgette for extra vege, and used a mixture of normal cream and sour cream because I didn’t have heavy cream, so yummy and creamy! The kids demolished their whole plate!
Delicious!! I didn’t have beef broth so I subbed chicken bone broth, and used mozzarella cheese instead of cheddar which was what I had on hand. Read the comments about seasoning so added a little extra salt and Italian seasoning. This was so delicious!!
I’m not exactly sure how I happened upon this recipe. I remember thinking when I first read it, “Gee, that sounds like a homemade hamburger helper recipe!” I though I’d give it a whirl and am delighted I did because its DAMN DELICIOUS! I make it about once a month now. In fact, I’ll be making it this weekend. I don’t change a thing about it! It’s perfect as is served with fresh steamed broccoli alongside.
I absolutely love this dish and have made It so many times!
Can I freeze this dish?
Super impressed with this recipe. It is a heavier meal but we have 6 in our family, it sticks with you, fairly easy AND everyone loves it! I actually doubled the noodles and 1.5 the sauce part, felt like it was too dry since I doubled the noodles and once I doubled the sauce, that was too much, I had to tweak this for our sized family or I would have just stuck with the exact measurements. I also do not like dried Italian seasoning, it falls so flat on flavor, I used fresh basil and oregano, I do this for every recipe that calls for Italian seasoning, just remember basil goes bad fast so try to use it up that week. This is so good the next day as well, I am not a leftover girl but can reheat this easily, flavors are even better! Thanks for the recipe!
Was looking for some different dinner recipes and this pasta dish was delicious! Would definitely make it again!!
EVERYONE in the house loved this one! It was better the next day! Next time I will probably cook the noodles like 1-2 min less to absorb more sauce.
This is a good, basic recipe. I think it would be really good with taco seasonings in place of the Italian seasoning.
I have been craving some delicious pasta and ground beef meal, today I decided to look for a recipe, found yours and oh my!! So delicious, creamy, flavorful, my boyfriend and I wanted to lick the spoon! I will definitively save as one of my favorites, we already said we’re making it next time is cold here in Florida, and I guarantee you we will make it before that as well.
I used a plant-based meat in this and omitted the flour, but kept everything the same otherwise. It turned out great! Will definitely try with ground beef next time. Just wanted to let others know that it works with plant-based meat as well.
I’ve made this many times. Everyone loves it! It’s good with chicken stock too.
My kids devoured this! I doubled the recipe, thankfully and it was even better the next day.
Easy but this NEEDS salt and/or seasonings.
Will definitely make again!
I am wanting to make this for supper tonight it’s my first time making it I have all my ingredients but I only have heavy whipping cream can I use that?
Heavy cream is heavy whipping cream.