Stuffed Shells
January 5, 2009 by Heather R.
Filed under Recipes
Stuffed shells are one of my most favorite meals to make. They’re simple, you can use pretty much anything on hand, and everyone loves them!
I’ve been making this particular recipe for about eight years now. You can use all beef or all turkey, but having tried both I prefer the combination. You can also use homemade pasta sauce, which works really well, but if you don’t have it on hand the jarred kind can be tasty too.
The recipe below makes about 30 shells – or two casserole dishes worth. My family of five gets through about a pan and a half, and the rest go in the fridge for yummy leftovers. If you don’t have that many people to feed it halves very easily.
Stuffed Shells
30 jumbo pasta shells (or one 12 oz box)
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 closed finely chopped garlic
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground turkey
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 lb shredded mozzarella cheese
1 26.5 oz can spaghetti sauce (or about 3 cups of homemade sauce)
Cook shells according to package directions. Drain and set aside to cool a little. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Melt butter in a large skillet and saute onion and garlic until tender. Add turkey and beef and cook until browned. Drain and mix in basil, oregano and 2 cups of the cheese (it’ll be very cheesy and stringy – perfect!).
Spread about half a cup of spaghetti sauce in the bottom of each 9×13″ casserole dish. Stuff cooked shell with the meat and cheese mixture and place meat-side down in the casserole dish. Spoon remaining sauce over top. Cover with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove foil, add remaining cheese over top and cook for an additional six or so minutes or until cheese is melted.
I never know how much I’m supposed to put in the shelves. a couple tablespoons? Until it overflows?
Hey you! I put in just enough so that it fills the shell but doesn’t bust apart when I try and put it in the pan. I’d say about two to three tablespoons?
I think I know what I’m cooking for supper now.
Sometimes I put in like a half block of cream cheese instead of or with the shredded cheese. And i use pork instead of beef.
Still tastes pretty good tho.
OMG between the pictures and the recipe, I must make this sometime this week.
Yum!!! What more can I say. This is going on the menu when our son visits this weekend. He loves pasta!
sounds delicious, great convenient recipe…i love to add a little ricotta cheese to the meat mixture when i make stuffed shells… which is hardly ever, i usually just end up making lasagna…
I made this for my wife last week and it was really good. Thanks for posting. I substituted the turkey with chicken. Very easy to make. It took me a long time to stuff the shells. Any way to speed that up?
I made this for my wife last week and it was really good. Thanks for posting. I substituted the turkey with chicken. Very easy to make. It took me a long time to stuff the shells. I am thinking that I overtsuffed them. Also some of the shells were stuck togther and ripped. Any way to prevent that?
Hi Pete! I wish there was a way to speed it up, but unfortunately I haven’t found one yet either!
As far as the shells sticking together, make sure you stir them after dumping them into the boiling water. Also, after I’ve drained them I run a little bit of cold water over them. I know that’s a big no-no in pasta cooking, but it serves two purposes: it cools the shells down to the point that I can handle them sooner, and it keeps them from sticking together. They end up back in the oven anyway and get reheated and I’ve never had an issue with the sauce staying on them like some rinsed pasta does.
I hope that helps!
Thanks Heather. I will try that out.
After rinsing and putting back in the pot, I toss a bit of olive oil all over the noodles. Just a tablespoon. That helps a lot with the sticking.
For getting them stuffed faster, i make everyone else help.