Stuffed Shells with Sausage are made with tender pasta shells filled with a rich Italian sausage and cheese filling, covered in marinara, and finished with melted cheese.
author’s note
The Pasta Dinner I Make Instead Of Spaghetti!
My kids are obsessed with spaghetti. They’d eat it every single day if I let them, haha! So I’ve had to get a little creative to keep dinner from feeling like the same meal on repeat. Some nights I make my classic spaghetti bolognese or turkey bolognese, and other nights I turn to these tried-and-true Stuffed Shells with Sausage!
They’ve got the same saucy pasta feel my kids love, but with jumbo shells stuffed with the most delicious Italian sausage and creamy cheese filling.
Thanks to a few ingredient shortcuts, they’re surprisingly easy to prep and feel a little more fun than another pot of spaghetti. They bake up hot, bubbly, and packed with flavor!
Stuffed Shells with Sausage Ingredients
| Ingredient | Let’s Chat About It |
|---|---|
| Jumbo pasta shells | Cook a few extra since some usually tear while boiling. |
| Italian sausage | Use mild or hot, depending on how much heat you want. |
| Marinara sauce | Use a sauce you love since it’s a big part of the flavor. I’m fully obsessed with Rao’s® Marinara here! |
| Chive and green onion cream cheese spread | Make sure it’s the soft, spreadable kind so it mixes in easily. |
| Italian cheese blend, Parmesan, egg | If you know me, you know I rarely recommend pre-grated cheese, but this blend works well here! For the Parmesan, use fresh refrigerated Parmesan, not the shelf-stable kind. |
Quick Tip
For more flavor in these Stuffed Shells with Sausage, sauté finely diced carrots, celery, and/or green pepper with the onion.
Chelsea’s Notes
Tips For Making These Stuffed Shells with Sausage
Salt the pasta water: This is your only chance to season the actual pasta, so don’t skip it!
Stuff the shells faster: Add the sausage and cheese filling to a gallon-sized zipper-top bag, push it to one corner, and snip off a 1-inch opening. Squeeze the filling into each shell.
Cover with sauce: Spoon marinara over the shells as evenly as possible so the edges don’t dry out while baking.
Featured Comment
Made this last night…IT WAS FABULOUS! This is the first recipe I’ve seen with meat in the shell stuffing. This is dinner party worthy. A winner! Home run! Just delicious!!
– Christi
What To Serve With Stuffed Shells With Sausage
- Garlic bread: Always the easiest win with saucy pasta.
- Simple Italian salad: A crisp salad balances the rich, cheesy shells.
- Roasted broccoli: Easy, simple, and great with marinara.
- Caesar salad: So good with baked pasta and quick to throw together.
Storage
Make Ahead & Freezing
Freezing: Freeze the filled shells before adding sauce or baking. Place filled shells on a sheet pan, freeze until solid, then transfer to freezer bags. Freeze up to 3 months.
To bake Stuffed Shells with Sausage from frozen: Add marinara to the pan, place frozen shells on top, cover with more sauce, and bake uncovered at 400°F for 30 to 35 minutes, or until hot. Add cheese and bake 5 to 10 minutes more.
Make ahead: Assemble up to 1 day ahead, cover, and refrigerate. Bake covered for 30 minutes, then uncover, add cheese, and finish baking.
More Delicious Dinner Recipes
Stuffed Shells with Sausage
Equipment
- 9 x 13-inch ceramic baking pan or glass
Ingredients
- Cooking spray
- 24 jumbo pasta shells uncooked
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup finely diced yellow onion
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 pound ground Italian sausage
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- Salt and pepper
- 1 (24-ounce) jar marinara sauce Rao’s is my favorite
- 1 (7.5-ounce) container chive and green onion cream cheese
- 2 cups shredded Italian cheese blend divided
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 large egg
- Fresh parsley optional
- Fresh basil optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9×13-inch ceramic or glass baking dish with cooking spray. Spread 1 cup marinara sauce over the bottom of the pan and set aside.
- Bring 12 cups water to a boil in a large pot. Once boiling, add 1 tablespoon salt. Add jumbo pasta shells and cook 1 minute less than package directions for al dente. Boil a few extra shells in case some break. Drain, rinse with cold water for 20 seconds, then spread on a sheet pan well greased with cooking spray.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once shimmering, add onion and cook, stirring often, for 3 to 5 minutes or until softened. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Move veggies to the side and add Italian sausage, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. I add 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cook, crumbling the sausage as it browns, until no longer pink and deeply browned. Remove from heat and drain off any grease.
- In a large bowl, mix cream cheese spread, 1 and 1/2 cups Italian cheese blend, Parmesan, and egg until combined. Add the cooked and slightly cooled sausage mixture and stir until evenly mixed.
- Spoon about 2 tablespoons filling into each shell, or use the bag method in Note 1. Place filled shells on top of the sauce in the prepared pan.
- Pour remaining marinara sauce over the shells, covering them as evenly as possible. Bake for 25 minutes. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup Italian cheese blend on top and bake 10 more minutes, or until cheese is melted and shells are hot throughout.
- Remove from oven and top with fresh parsley and basil, if desired. Serve hot.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Made this last night. Increased the garlic and assumed the onions were diced. We also used our home canned marinara. IT WAS FABULOUS! This is the first recipe I’ve seen with meat in the shell stuffing. This is dinner party worthy. A winner! Home run! Just delicious!!
I am sooo happy to hear this! Thanks so much Christi! 🙂
MAde these for dinner tonight with a side of garlic bread!! All I can say is OMG! Family devoured them!! Saved this recipe, will definitely be making again and again!! Ty
Yay! Love hearing that 🙂
I went online looking for a stuffed shells recipe with meat in the shells as I tried an “all cheese” version and just didn’t like it. Yours fit the bill. I am a pretty good cook, so I tweaked your recipe some based on some ingredients I already had. I did not use any ground beef, but only Italian sausage. I had some cottage cheese that needed to be used, so mixed it with the cream cheese mixture. I also did not add the egg. When I had more shells than filling, I mixed up some cottage cheese, mozzarella, and parmesan and filled the rest to give to a neighbor. Absolutely delicious.
Sounds delicious! Glad you enjoyed these Lori 🙂
Looks great can I make this a day ahead, and cook the day of the event? Thanks
Absolutely! 🙂
About to try this recipe but i will use ricotta and cream cheese ..with added herbs and spices… Will add photo if I can figure out how????
Update soon…
Thanks…
Hope you love it!
Could I use regular cream cheese?
Sure; I’d amp up the seasoning though or add in some herbs!
Chelsea, I made it tonight and it was delish. Everyone licked their plates including a 2.5 year old.
Followed the recipe to a tee, it worked out really well to my surprise. The 24 shells is perfect for the amount of filling, the pan size was perfect for the number of shells, and the heaping tablespoon for the measurement worked out exactly so thank you for this well thought out recipe.
To anyone reading, this recipe made enough for 4 adults and 2 kids. Myself, my wife and our toddler at exactly half. If you don’t want leftovers, consider cutting the recipe in half (although you may want leftovers since it was really good!
Having made it myself, my only suggestion to others trying it would be to add another half a bottle of sauce if you like your pasta saucy (or mix the bottle with another half bottle of water) to help fill the pan and to have some extra on the plate for dipping each bite into.
Any thoughts on how to make this the long way? I appreciate the shortcuts but I’m a sucker for punishment and I prefer to use unprocessed foods where possible. Looking for the original ingredients that would take the place of the bottled pasta sauce, chive and green onion spreadable cream cheese, and the shredded Italian cheese blend. I’m sure with a little experimentation it wouldn’t be too hard to get close but wondering if you have a master ingredient list prior to the substitutions.
The pasta shells didn’t have any cooking info on the box so I cooked them to al dente and it seemed to work fine. Cooking them all the way would result in shells splitting or falling apart as mine were starting to.
Thanks so much for the delicious meal!
-Andrew
Hey Andrew!
Thanks so much for your comment and writing in about this recipe (and including so many details for readers; thanks!) I’m thrilled you enjoyed it! 🙂
I do have a stuffed shells recipe that’s more from scratch (https://www.chelseasmessyapron.com/stuffed-shells/) but it doesn’t have the sausage. For this recipe I’d think you could make your own cream cheese by adding in diced green onions and some fresh minced garlic. You can also make your own marinara and use freshly grated mozzarella instead of the cheese blend. It will be a bit different, but I’m sure still delicious!
Thanks again for your comment and trying the recipe!
Came out super good! The whole fam loved it ??????
Yay! So happy to hear that! 🙂
Oh my gosh, these stuffed shells with sausage look so good. I love the shortcuts. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
hey girl- this looks so yummy! y’all have a great weekend!