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Sausage stuffed shells are a really easy Italian appetizer or main entree the entire family will love. They’re cheesy, savory, garlicky, and loaded with so much creamy ricotta flavor.
My stuffed shells are filled with ricotta and parmesan cheese, ground sweet Italian sausage, fresh basil, garlic, and an optional egg. They’re baked topped with a little marinara and plenty of mozzarella cheese until golden.
Do I Need the Egg?
No, not necessarily. The egg is typically added to stuffed shells to give the ricotta filling more body. Since my recipe calls for ground sausage, you can skip the egg if you want as the sausage will help hold the filling together better.
If you leave the sausage or beef out, I’d recommend using the egg.
Ground Beef Versus Ground Sausage
You can optionally make stuffed shells with ground beef in place of sausage. I just prefer the flavor of Italian sausage in pasta dishes—it just belongs together! The advantage of using beef is it’s easier to break into small chunks for the filling. Sausage can be a little more stubborn. If you like spicy, opt for hot/spicy Italian sausage for a twist.
Filling the Shells
You can do this in a few different ways. By spoon, or you can fill a plastic bag with a corner cut off and squeeze the ricotta filling in. Both move relatively quickly. If you’re feeding a small army, it may be faster to fill the shells using the pastry bag method. Just make sure you cut a large enough hole (3/4 inch) so the sausage/beef can slide through.
Finish With a Broil
If a recipe calls for a layer of melted cheese on top, I’m almost always finishing the baking with a quick broil. It will slightly crisp the cheese and give it a nice golden finish. Broil on high for 2-3 minutes but watch the dish closely as the cheese can burn VERY fast. There’s no going back…
You’ll Also Love
- Creamy pasta shells
- Skillet lasagna
- Cheesy baked spaghetti and meatballs
- No-boil baked ziti with sausage and ricotta
- Baked rigatoni
- Not your mom’s American chop suey
- Cheesy baked gnocchi
- Eggplant parmesan
Sausage Stuffed Shells Recipe
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
Jumbo stuffed shells filled with ground sweet Italian sausage, ricotta and parmesan cheese, fresh basil, garlic, and egg. Baked topped with a little marinara and plenty of mozzarella cheese until golden.
Ingredients
- 20–22 jumbo shells (12–14 ounce box)
- 24 ounces marinara
- 14–16 ounces ground sweet or hot Italian sausage (or ground beef)
- 2 cups (15 ounces) ricotta cheese
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup coarsely grated parmesan cheese
- 1 egg
- 2–3 garlic cloves, minced
- 6–7 basil leaves, chopped, plus more for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 °F.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta shells al dense, strain, and rinse with cool water.
- Meanwhile, in a cast-iron skillet, cook sausage until fully cooked through and browned, about 5-7 minutes. Use the tip of a spatula to break the sausage into the smallest chunks possible. Season with salt and pepper to taste and remove pan from the heat.
- Transfer the sausage to a medium bowl with ricotta, basil. garlic, parmesan cheese, and egg. Stir until fully incorporated and creamy.
- Place 1 cup of marinara in the bottom of the same skillet. Fill each shell to the top with ricotta filling using a spoon. Arrange in the skillet as tightly as possible. I was able to fit about 22 shells in a 12 inch cast iron skillet.
- Top each shell with a heaping teaspoon of marinara. Layer the entire dish with about 1 cup of shredded mozzarella (more is OK too).
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until cheese is fully melted and golden. You can finish with a quick broil to give the cheese a little sear if desired. Let cool 5 minutes, top with extra chopped basil and serve.
Notes
If making a larger quantity of shells, you can bake in a larger baking dish instead. You will need to scale the ricotta filling as it’s enough for roughly 20-22 shells.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: About 3 shells
- Calories: 430
- Sugar: 1.9g
- Sodium: 864mg
- Fat: 21.6g
- Saturated Fat: 9.2g
- Carbohydrates: 32g
- Fiber: 1.4g
- Protein: 24.6g
- Cholesterol: 73mg
Keywords: stuffed shells with meat, beef stuffed shells, ricotta stuffed shells
These are delicious! Nice change from the ricotta filling. These were a big hit! I made them in the morning, refrigerated them all day and cooked them at night.
★★★★★
These are delicious! Nice change from the ricotta filling. These were a big hit!
★★★★★
Can you make this the night before and then cook it in the morning?
absolutely!
This was amazing. The sauce we used was Bertolli d’Italia Marinara Sauce. We did everything the same but the pan was an All-Clad frying non-stick pan, it’s very thick and heavy. Worked great.
I was supposed to make this dish yesterday but when your Walmart order goes to a store 2.5 hours away well, you have to wait until the next day. And the next day is the day my daughter (teen) cooks a meal once a week. She chose to make your dish. With a little help from me, she did an awesome job.
I totally recommend this dish.
★★★★★
Ps.. we have Basil allergies in our house and so we left that out.
Shawn-I’m a “make in advance” kind of cook. Would this filling be ok mixed together (including the sausage) and then frozen in the ziplock bag for defrosting at a later date? Thanks
I’ve never tried but I think you will be all set to do so!
It’s much like lasagna so I would think you would be able to.
Made this dish last night and it was fantastic! I added a small amount of chopped spinach to the cheese mixture and think that went well. Had the butcher grind up some pork butt with some fennel seasoning for the meat for the mixture. Put it together in a 9 x 13 glass dish so it did require extra baking time.
Will definitely make this again… Love it!
★★★★★
Filling is really good. But you should NOT cook tomato sauce dishes in cast iron, it will ruin the seasoned coating on your frying pan
★★★★★
Thanks, Joe – but that’s actually not 100% true. A well-seasoned skillet is incredibly durable and won’t be ruined by the sauce. I use my skillets with red sauces A LOT. You MAY be able to detect some metallic flavors when cooking with acids but it takes a long time and isn’t harmful, just a flavor preference.
This was great! I also cooked longer since I used glass dishes. My shells might have been a little on the small side too because my filling ended up filling 31 shells!
Very tasty though! Served with asparagus and salad.
This recipe was a hit! So yummy!😋
I used 1/2 sausage and 1/2 ground beef. Increase the cook time.
I cooked it for an hour and 15 and ended up turning the heat up to 400 the last 15 min. Then put it under the broiler for a couple of minutes.
I used a 9×13 glass dish instead of cast iron, maybe that was why.
★★★★★
Could be – cast iron gets HOT in the oven and retains a lot of heat. Glad it worked out!