Italian Stuffed Shells With Ground Beef

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Everyone loves this recipe for Italian stuffed shells with ground beef. It hits all the notes – there are Italian flavors in the ground beef, it’s very cheesy from the Parmesan and ricotta filling, and it’s so easy to make ahead. Any night can be a pasta night with this simple stuffed shells and meat dinner.

So grab your jumbo pasta shells and meet me in the kitchen to whip this up.

The 3 basic steps to making this stuffed shells recipe

1. Boil the large pasta shells
2. Brown the Italian seasoned ground beef and mix together the stuffed pasta filling
3. Assemble and bake stuffed shells

Ingredients for Italian stuffed shells with beef

An entire bag of large pasta shells, or jumbo pasta shells as they’re sometimes called, are the vessels that hold this Italian stuffed shells dish together. I’ve used HemisFares pasta and Barila to make this stuffed pasta shell dish – you can use any brand you like.

Half of the filling is made of a ground beef mixture sauteed on the stove with onion, red pepper, garlic, and Italian seasonings like dried parsley and oregano.

The ground beef filling combines with a creamy ricotta cheese filling with a little Parmesan cheese, pasta sauce, and mozzarella cheese.

If there’s no pasta sauce in the house, substitute the tomato sauce by adding a couple of teaspoons of Italian spices to a can of crushed tomatoes.

Steps to make Italian stuffed shells with ground beef filling

Step 1. Heat a large pot of water on the stove to medium-high and boil water with large pasta shells as directed until cooked al dente. This is a good time to start cooking the ground beef filling.

Do not overcook the pasta, though, since the stuffed pasta will finish cooking in the oven.

Once finished, drain pasta, then toss it in olive oil to prevent pasta from sticking while finishing the stuffing for the shells.

Love pasta? See these tips on how to cook refrigerated tortellini

Step 2. Heat a large skillet on the stove to medium-high. Add olive oil and let it heat until the oil is hot and shiny.

Add the ground beef, onion, red pepper, garlic, salt, pepper, parsley, and oregano.

Brown beef and vegetable mixture for about 10 minutes, breaking down beef as it cooks and stirring regularly until beef is thoroughly cooked and onions are translucent.

Once done, remove from heat and strain on a plate lined with a paper towel to remove excess grease.

Step 3. Set out a medium-sized baking dish and set the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cover the bottom of the dish with 1 cup of pasta sauce.

Step 4. Mix together the filling for the stuffing.

In a large bowl, gently combine the cooked beef mixture, ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, and 1 cup of pasta sauce.

Add a little extra salt and pepper to the filling mixture if desired.

Stuff shells with filling mixture and add them to a medium-sized baking dish.

Top with remaining pasta sauce.

And finish with a layer of mozzarella cheese.

Step 5. Bake stuffed shells with ground beef filling for about 20 minutes until cheese is melted. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. Cover with tin foil if waiting to serve longer to keep it warm.

Tasty filling ideas for stuffed shells

Jumbo pasta shells are one of my favorite Italian stuffed pasta types because they are big and strong enough to hold some tasty fillings. And since variations of recipes are so fun to experiment with, I wanted to share with you a few more ideas.

Here are a few variations on stuffed shells you can use to modify this stuffed shells recipe:

• Stuffed shells with turkey sausage, pork sausage, or sous vide sausage
• Italian stuffed shells with meat and spinach
• Stuffing shells with ground chicken instead of ground beef
• Going vegetarian by stuffing shells with spinach, roasted cherry tomatoes, or sauteed mushrooms
• Using up leftovers like meatballs, diced sous vide chicken, meatloaf, or sous vide shrimp

What to do with leftover meat sauce

It’s definitely a gift when you have leftover meat sauce!

The ratio of stuffed shells with meat sauce will sometimes leave you with leftovers. It depends on the size of your baking dish and how many ingredient substitutions you make.

There are plenty of ways to use leftover meat sauce from baked pasta.

If you’re all pasta’d out for the week, you can freeze leftover meat sauce to thaw and use in pasta sauces or in dishes like this baked rigatoni with ground beef. The fillings are quite similar.

Tips for meal prepping baked shells

This stuffed shells dish ranks high up there on the “easy to meal prep pasta dishes” list with mac and cheese, lasagna, and baked chicken Parmesan with vodka sauce.

To meal prep baked shells, assemble the ingredients in a freezer and oven safe baking dish.

Wrap the dish once with foil and then wrap 2-3 times with plastic wrap, or just vacuum seal it. See my Foodsaver 4400 review video to get a look at how a vacuum sealer works. I vacuum seal all the time for my sous vide recipes. 

Helpful things to have on hand to make baked pasta

Here are some kitchen tools I can’t live without, particularly equipment used for making baked pasta dishes.

• To chop veggies for baked pasta dishes, I save time by using a mandoline or food processor.
• You’ll often see me use 8″ Shun chef’s knife and one of these bamboo cutting boards or my beautiful Acadia wood cutting board.
• Pyrex glass mixing bowls with lids are great for mixing ingredients and easily storing them in the fridge.
• For meal prep, I’ll use two oval-shaped 9” cast iron dishes or a 9″ glass dish to split the recipe in half.

Most important tips for making stuffed shells

• Cook jumbo shells to al dente for baked pasta dishes like this one. The pasta will continue to cook in the oven.
• Don’t forget to line the bottom of the baking dish with tomato sauce before adding the shells. This helps keep the shells from burning and sticking to the baking dish.
• This recipe is a blank canvas – if you don’t like one of the filling ingredients or just want to change it up, you can try using different meats (ground chicken, sausage), making it half ground beef and half shrimp, or making it vegetarian (mushrooms, spinach).
• If you have leftover meat sauce, use it in something creative or freeze it for later.

Are you a stuffed shells person, or a lasagna person?

Let me know when you make this. Leave a comment or find me on Instagram @sipbitego and show me your food.

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