The Cozy Cookbook is here! 
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!
Creamy Beef and Shells
I 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.
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.
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.
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.
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! 😂)
Try These Next
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- Homemade Hamburger Helper
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- Beef Tips and Gravy
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- Stuffed Bell Peppers
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- Chicken Alfredo Pasta
-
- Caprese Pasta
-
- Beef Noodle Soup
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Tried This Recipe?
Leave a review, I love hearing your feedback! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Creamy Beef and Shells
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
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.
Hi I use so many of your recipes and enjoy them . But the recipe for creamy beef and shells has such confusing measurements. Examples . .75 of a small onion … does that mean 3/4 of an onion ??
.38 teaspoon of mustard ??? .38 cups of milk ??? On and on it goes 😞
Help !
Hi Arlene! I think you accidentally adjusted the number of servings (top middle of the recipe card), which then changes the ingredient quantities so that people can make the recipe for more or less people. If you switch it from 4 to 3, you’ll get the measurements that you indicated! It should be 4 and it’ll make sense! 🙂
If you don’t have half and half on hand , would regular milk still help do the trick?
Thanks
The sauce will be a little thinner/runnier, but in a pinch you can do that, maybe let the sauce simmer a little longer to let excess water evaporate 🙂
Sooooo delish. 5 stars from the whole family!
Wahoooo! I’m so happy the whole family liked it, thanks so much for the great review!💗
Love this. Ive made it many times its like a homemade hamburger helper. Always a crowd pleaser.
Yes! I agree, always a crowd pleaser. Thanks so much for the great review Brooke!💗
I don’t often have cream cheese around. Would using cream instead of half-and-half be a good substitution? Or just leave it out?
You could skip it or add a small splash of cream! Either one in this case would be fine!
I’m making this today and have a last minute question – When I read “16 oz tomato sauce” I thought you meant just regular canned unseasoned tomato sauce. But then I read in the comments when you answered someone from the UK that you meant a jar of prepared ragu type sauce. Can you clarify this for me? I’m taking this meal to a family for dinner and want to make sure I make it correctly. Thanks very much.
Hi Meg! Your initial thought was correct, regular unseasoned tomato sauce!
Wonderful. Thank you SO much for your quick reply!
You’re very welcome Meg!
Made this exactly as the recipe states and it was sooooooo delicious! Everyone in the family loved it!
Sounds like a huge victory Janet, Nice work!🙌 Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review!
I made this tonight. Another GREAT recipe, I haven’t found 1 yet that we haven’t liked. This one I made only a few changes. I added an additional TBSP Worcestershire, 2 TBSP ketchup, 1/2 tsp prepared yellow mustard and then I added the freshly grated Parmesan cheese directly to the casserole before serving 1/2 cup. SO delicious . What I love about these recipes, they are all very similar to my style of cooking, which is great because I usually have most ingredients on hand and I get to try new things 🙂
This makes me so happy Julie! I love to hear from people enjoying the recipes. I really try to use common ingredients that people have in their pantries so it’s great to hear you recognize that! thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review!❤️
Who would it be okay to add a little paprika? In place of the hot sauce?
Hi Elsa, sure- that should be fine! 🙂
Amazing! The fam really liked this recipe. I subbed shaved beef for the ground beef and mezi rigatoni for the shells because that’s what I had in hand. I’m a gravy – lover, and I love anything beefy and creamy! Thanks for sharing this!
Cheers to a fellow gravy lover!🥂 I’m so happy the family enjoyed this one Kimberly, thanks so much for the great comments and review!♥️