Cheesesteak Stuffed Shells are just the comfort food dinner you’ve been looking for. Pasta shells loaded with shaved beef, peppers and onions baked in a creamy Alfredo sauce. And yep, you can go ahead and buy a jar of sauce from the store – let’s not complicate things here.
Why You’ll Love These Cheesesteak Stuffed Shells
I can tell you why WE Love this Cheesesteak Stuffed Shells recipe, and why we think you’ll love them too!
- Perfect for everyday dinners or parties: This stuffed shells recipe is easy enough to make for an everyday meal but they’re also perfect for a game day or party.
- Unique recipe: Not everyone has had a cheesesteak stuffed shell…and I can promise you, they’re going to love them.
- Make ahead recipe: To keep things easy, you can make these stuffed shells in the morning, or even the day before and then bake them right before dinner.
How To Make
Step by step photos here with brief instructions, for complete instructions scroll down to the recipe card at the end of the post.
- Cook the peppers, onions and shaved beef in a large skillet over medium heat. If you can’t find shaved beef in your butcher department, go ahead and swap out ground beef instead.
- Transfer the beef and peppers into a bowl and mix together with ricotta cheese, an egg and seasonings. Mix until combined.
- Cook the pasta shells according to the package directions, drain and set aside. Pour a small amount of the Alfredo sauce into a 9″ x 13″ baking dish and spread out to cover the bottom of the dish. Fill the shells with the beef and pepper mixture and place into the prepared baking dish.
- Pour the rest of the Alfredo sauce over the shells. Sprinkle grated parmesan cheese on top along with some black pepper and fresh parsley. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes until warmed through and slightly brown on top.
Tips For Best Results!
- Separate the shaved beef: Make sure when you add the shaved beef to the skillet that you separate the pieces as best as you can. If you don’t, the beef will just clump up in the pan, making it hard to get those nice, thin pieces of caramelized shaved beef.
- Rinse the cooked shells: After draining, rinse the shells with cold water to stop the cooking process and to ensure that they don’t stick together. Also make sure that the pasta shells are drained well (no water hiding inside!) before you fill them.
- Buy a good quality sauce: The Alfredo sauce lends a ton of flavor to this recipe, so make sure that you buy one with a good flavor, we used Rao’s brand and it was delicious. Our original recipe included a homemade Alfredo sauce, but we found that we were grabbing a good quality jarred sauce most of the time to make it easier.
- Don’t leave them in the oven too long: If you leave these cheesesteak stuffed shells in the oven too long the cream sauce might break (making it appear oily instead of deliciously creamy) so check them after about 20 minutes to see how they’re doing.
Variations
- As we mentioned before, if you can’t find the shaved beef in your grocery store, ground beef makes the perfect swap out.
- We kept the filling pretty simple, but you could also add grated parmesan cheese and/or shredded mozzarella cheese to the filling.
- You can even add a layer of mozzarella cheese on top of the shells before baking for an extra cheesy stuffed shells recipe!
Can You Freeze Stuffed Shells?
You can! We like this cheesesteak stuffed shell recipe when it’s fresh from the oven for the best flavor, but you can make these ahead of time and freeze the whole baking dish before baking.
Take the dish out of the freezer and let the shells defrost in the refrigerator. Then bake following the directions, adding a few minutes to the cooking time if needed. We like to have an extra jar of Alfredo sauce on hand when baking the shells from frozen in case they dry out a bit.
Looking For More Pasta Recipes?
- Ground Beef Stuffed Shells
- Italian Wedding Meatball Pasta Bake
- Brown Butter Lobster Roll Pasta
- Easy Penne Vodka
- Creamy Tuscan Spaghetti with Scallops
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Cheesesteak Stuffed Shells
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeCheesesteak Stuffed Shells are the easy comfort food meal that you’ve been searching for! Pasta shells stuffed with shaved beef, onions, peppers and ricotta cheese baked with a creamy Alfredo sauce. Yep, you can grab a jar from the grocery store to keep it easy. We make these shells for everyday dinners (leftovers are excellent) for parties or game days.
Ingredients
- 16 ounce box of jumbo shells
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 bell peppers diced (about 2 cups, diced)
- 1 medium onion, diced (about 1 cup, diced)
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 1 /2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 pound shaved beef (if you can’t find shaved beef, swap out ground beef)
- 15 ounce container of ricotta cheese (regular or part-skim is fine)
- 1 egg, beaten
- 15 ounce jar of store bought Alfredo sauce (or grab a larger jar if you want to serve the shells with extra sauce on the side)
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Cook the shells according to the package directions, drain and rinse with cool water so the pasta doesn’t stick together and set aside.
- Add the oil to a large skillet over medium heat. Add the peppers and onions and cook for 5 minutes until the peppers and onions are soft. Add the garlic, salt and oregano to the skillet, stir and cook 1 minute longer.
- Push the onions and peppers to one side of the pan (add another drizzle of oil if needed) and then add the beef to the skillet. Try to separate the pieces of shaved beef as much as you can before adding it to the pan. Cook the beef until brown and caramelized, then stir together with the peppers and onions.
- Transfer the beef and pepper mixture into a bowl, let cool slightly and then stir in the ricotta cheese and the egg until combined.
- Pour a small amount of the Alfredo sauce into the bottom of a 9″ x 13″ baking dish and spread out to cover the bottom of the dish.
- Fill the shells with the filling and place in the baking dish. Cover with the Alfredo sauce, then grated parmesan cheese, freshly ground black pepper and chopped parsley.
- Bake, uncovered, for 20-25 minutes until the filling is warmed through and the tops of the shells are slightly browned.
- Serve immediately with extra warmed Alfredo sauce if desired.
Recipe Notes
*You might not have enough filling for the entire box of shells, we got about 26 shells that were stuffed pretty full.
Store: Cover leftover shells with aluminum foil or transfer to an air tight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Reheat: Reheat the shells in the microwave or oven until just warmed through. Serve with extra sauce upon reheating.
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
At our house anything with Alfredo Sauce, is devoured instantly. Thanks for a delicious recipe.
Our house too! So glad you liked it Bobbi!
I assume the egg goes with the ricotta? From years of making lasagna….doesn’t say. This is a very poorlg written recipe. It all sounds delishous but i hope it comes out ok. Very vegue on some of the directions :-(
I did miss the egg, I updated the instructions, but other than that the directions are in tact. Let me know if you need any further assistance!
Yes, thank you – it goes in with the beef and pepper mixture once it’s cooled.
I’m assuming that the ricotta goes in with the beef before being stuffed into shells? It’s not in the instructions – but seems that would make the most sense.