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Creamy Beef and Shells

Creamy Beef and Shells is an easy ground beef recipe that your family will love! Serve it with Garlic Bread with Cheese for an easy Italian dinner with simple ingredients!

Be sure to try my heart Beef Vegetable Soup recipe next!

A skillet with Creamy Beef and Shells

Creamy Beef and Shells

promise you- the extra ingredients that I have listed in this recipe are all SO entirely worth the outcome. It might seem strange to have a dab of hot sauce or mustard powder in here, but they really compliment and enhance the other flavors in this recipe. (And don’t skimp out on the cream cheese! It’s heavenly.)

This sauce has the perfect balance of every flavor. It’s creamy, but still has a distinct tomato flavor with a perfect ratio of ground beef and pasta.

You will be super proud of yourself when you taste it. My husband’s exact reaction: “Mmmm…. (4 seconds later)… Oh my GOSH! This is REALLY good!” -all of those flavors roll in after a few seconds and that’s what makes this recipe so great.

Okay- let’s do it!

How to Make It

See recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.

Shred the cheese and measure out all ingredients prior to beginning. Begin heating the pasta water for boiling.

Cook and crumble the ground beef over medium-high heat. Add onions halfway through and cook until softened. Drain any grease. Add minced garlic and cook for 1 minute.

Add 1 tsp hot sauce, 1 TBS Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp Italian seasoning, ½ tsp mustard powder, 1 pinch of red pepper flakes, and 3 TBS flour. Cook for one minute.

Cooking ground beef and adding tomato sauce for Creamy Beef and Shells

Add the beef broth and use a silicone spatula to ‘clean’ the bottom of the pot.

Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, and softened cream cheese. Let the sauce simmer while you boil the shells for 7-8 minutes or as instructed on package. (Optional, add a few teaspoons of kosher salt to the boiling water.)

Decrease heat to low. Stir in the half and half. Remove from heat and gradually stir in the shredded cheese until well-combined.

Mixing cream and cheese into tomato sauce for Creamy Beef and Shells.

Add the drained pasta shells and stir to combine. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve with garlic bread with cheese and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Adding pasta shells to a creamy tomato sauce to make Creamy Beef and Shells

Pro Tips

  • Tomato Sauce: I use Hunt’s tomato sauce in this recipe, tomato passata can also be used.
  • Shred the cheese from a block. It will melt and taste much better than bagged shredded cheese, which contains cellulose to prevent it from clumping in the bag (which also makes it melt less creamy.) I use Cracker Barrel sharp yellow cheddar.
  • The hot sauce enhances all of the other flavors in the dish. It won’t make it spicy. I use Texas Pete hot sauce.
  • If you don’t have mustard powder or tomato paste, they can be omitted, but they do add subtle yet excellent flavor to the sauce. The tomato paste also helps to thicken the sauce.
  • A variety of different pastas will work in this recipe, including rotini, farfalle (bowtie), and fusilli.

Storage

Store in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

Creamy Beef and Shells on a white plate with a fork.

Tools For This Recipe

(Amazon affiliate links)– Check out all of my kitchen essentials here.

  • Kitchen Scale– Perfect for weighing the pasta or ground beef if needed.
  • Deep 13-inch skillet– You’ll have this one forever.
  • Box Grater– Always shred cheese from a block for best flavor and meltability. (Yes, that’s actually a word! 😂)

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Creamy Beef and Shells with fresh parsley sprinkled on top.

Creamy Beef and Shells

5 from 33 ratings
Creamy Beef and Shells is an easy ground beef recipe with shell pasta smothered in a creamy and flavorful tomato sauce.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. ground beef, 85% lean
  • Salt/Pepper
  • 1 small diced yellow onion, can sub 1 tsp onion powder
  • 3 cloves minced garlic, can sub ½ tsp garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon hot sauce
  • 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • ½ teaspoon mustard powder
  • 1 pinch red pepper flakes, optional
  • 3 Tablespoons flour, optional-helps thicken the sauce
  • 1 cup beef broth
  • 16 oz. tomato sauce
  • 1 Tablespoon tomato paste
  • 1 Tablespoon cream cheese, softened
  • ½ cups half and half
  • 1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
  • ½ pound medium shell pasta
  • Fresh parsley, to garnish
  • Grated Parmesan cheese, for serving.

Instructions

  • Shred the cheese and measure out all ingredients prior to beginning. Begin heating the pasta water for boiling.
  • Season the ground beef with salt/pepper. Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the beef. Cook and crumble it for 4 minutes. Add the onions and cook for 5 more minutes, or until the onions are softened and the beef is cooked through. Drain grease.
  • Add minced garlic and cook for 1 minute.
  • Add hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, Italian seasoning, mustard powder, red pepper flakes, and flour. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
  • Add the beef broth and use a silicone spatula to ‘clean’ the bottom of the skillet.
  • Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, and softened cream cheese. Let the sauce simmer while you boil the shells for 7-8 minutes or as instructed on package. (Optional, add a few teaspoons of salt to the boiling water.)
  • Decrease heat to low. Stir in the half and half. Remove from heat and gradually stir in the shredded cheese until well-combined.
  • Add the drained pasta and stir to combine. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve with garlic bread with cheese and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Notes

Shred the cheese from a block. It will melt (and taste!) much better than bagged shredded cheese, which contains cellulose to prevent it from clumping in the bag (but also makes it melt less creamy.) I use Cracker Barrel sharp yellow cheddar.

The hot sauce enhances all of the other flavors in the dish. It won’t make it spicy. I use Texas Pete hot sauce.

If you don’t have mustard powder or tomato paste, they can be omitted, but they do add subtle but excellent flavor to the sauce. The tomato paste also helps to thicken the sauce.

A variety of different pastas will work in this recipe, including rotini, farfalle (bowtie), and fusilli.

Nutrition

Calories: 543kcal, Carbohydrates: 35g, Protein: 43g, Fat: 26g, Saturated Fat: 15g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 130mg, Sodium: 1282mg, Potassium: 1051mg, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 8g, Vitamin A: 1154IU, Vitamin C: 13mg, Calcium: 399mg, Iron: 6mg
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96 comments on “Creamy Beef and Shells”

  1. We loved this recipe! Came together quickly after work. Great flavors! Will make again.

  2. Can you tell me why kind of ‘tomato sauce’ the recipe means? Does it mean a jar of ragu type sauce?  I’m in the Uk. Thanks

  3. Question:  This recipe says it serves 4.  I make a meal every month for 40 people at a shelter … thought this would be perfect.  Using the serving size of 4 means I would use 10 pounds of ground meat (and increase all the other ingredients 10 times) to serve 40 people.  This seems like too much.  What would you suggest.  My thought was increase the recipe perhaps by 5 (ie. 5 lbs of ground meat and all other ingredients). Thank you!  Also in this 40 people about half are women and 1/2 are children.  

    • Hi Kathy, if you increase it by 5, that would be 2.5 pounds of pasta for 40 people which I don’t think would be enough. I would try to base it on the pasta and not so much the meat. You can definitely use less than 1 pound of ground beef per batch though, maybe more like 1/2 pound so that it’s more reasonable for the amount of people you’re making it for. This resource may help you determine how much to make!

  4. I love this recipe and so does my family! I’ve made it a couple times now.

    I actually took a note from the chop suey recipe and added the noodles and 2 extra cups of beef broth and cooked the noodles right in the pot. The little “hidden” flavors from the mustard powder, hot sauce and Worcestershire truly do add that extra flavor and make a huge difference. 

    I recommend this to anyone that has a family with picky kids!

  5. So delicious!!!

  6. We thought this was great!! I had to make a few swaps–didn’t have dry mustard so I used stone ground mustard and I’m allergic to the anchovies in Worcestershire so I used A1 and lastly had to used dried minced onions as had no fresh one. Family loved it and asked to put it in our keepers recipe book and it has to be great for that!

    • I’m so happy it made it in the keepers recipe book!😃 My daughter loves this recipe. Definitely a great one for the whole family. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment!

  7. Making this tonight!! I’m thinking of making a double batch of the sauce and freezing it. Think that would hold up well?

  8. I want to try this but I’m allergic to all fish/seafood and there are anchovies in the Worcestershire sauce. Can I sub soy sauce for it?

  9. This is one of those meals that just gets done at least once a week it’s that good.

    • lol I agree! It’s so easy and yummy it always finds a way into the rotation! I’m so happy to hear you’re enjoying this one. Thanks so much for the review!😍

  10. Can you replace the cheddar with parmesan cheese? 

    • I haven’t tried that before, I’m not sure that it would melt quite as well and the taste would definitely be different. That’s not saying that it can’t work, but I just haven’t tried. Monterey Jack, Mozzarella, or even Velveeta would be a better substitute.

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