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Stuffed Shells with Meat
These Meat Stuffed Shells are a comfort food classic! They’re richly satisfying, hearty yet elegant and astonishingly quick and easy to make! Jumbo pasta shells are stuffed with a creamy, flavorful luxe combination of Italian sausage, ricotta (with my secret silky ingredient!) buttery mozzarella, nutty Parmesan and a healthy dose of garlic and herbs, then baked in a bath of marinara sauce (store-bought is a great shortcut!) and melty cheese. Each and every bite is hot, meaty, cheesy, saucy perfection – no dry shells in this recipe! You’ll also love that this recipe can easily be made up to a day in advance and refrigerated until ready to bake and it freezes beautifully. While my favorite Stuffed Shells are loaded with Italian sausage, I’ve also included recipe variations for Ricotta Stuffed Shells, Spinach Stuffed Shells, Chicken Stuffed Shells, etc. Serve your Stuffed Pasta Shells with Caesar salad and garlic bread or breadsticks for a cozy dinner everyone will love.
Prep
25 min
Cook
40 min
Total
1h 5m
Serves
28
Instructions
- 01
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- 02
Boil shells in salted water for 1 minute less than al dente, don’t overcook! Strain, and gently rinse with cool water until shells are completely cool. Meanwhile:
- 03
Brown sausage and onion over medium heat in a large skillet. Add garlic and cook 30 more seconds. Pat off excess grease if you’d like.
- 04
Remove 1 1/2 cups sausage/onions and add it to a 9x13 baking dish along with half of the marinara sauce. Stir to combine then spread into an even layer.
- 05
Whisk the egg in a large bowl. Add all remaining Filling ingredients and stir until creamy. Add remaining sausage and stir until evenly combined.
- 06
Fill each shell with the filling and line on top of the sauce in the baking dish. The easiest way to do this is add the filling to a freezer size bag, snip the corner (about 3/4-inch cut) and pipe the filling into each shell. Arrange the shells as tightly as possible. I was able to fit about 28 shells, 7 rows of 4.
- 07
Pour remaining marinara sauce over shells, making sure they are covered so they don’t dry out. Top the marinara with 1 ½ cups mozzarella and 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese.
- 08
Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake an additional 10 minutes or until the cheese is completely melted. Broil if desired for a minute or two. Garnish with parsley if desired.
Variations & swaps
Variations for Meat Stuffed Shells
- The possibilities are endless when it comes to Stuffed Shells – stuff them with anything you’d like! The Italian sausage in this recipe equals about 3 cups, 1 ½ cups (half) of which is added to the filling. You can equally swap the sausage with a different protein and use it in the sauce and the filling, or swap the sausage for 1 ½ cup of anything added just to the filling. Here are a few ideas:
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