I've now made this a couple of times and recommend the following changes: Scale the recipe (if necessary), triple the sauce, double the garlic, add some italian seasoning, melt Mozarella on top instead of the Romano. Delicious! I look forward to making this many, many more times.
These stuffed meat shells are so good! They are very creamy and full of flavor.
The only thing that I added was about 1/2 box of chopped spinach to the mixture. (My husband isn't wild about cooked spinach, but what he doesn't know, won't hurt him LOL)! I have tried other stuffed meat shell recipes, and they just didn't taste right. This one is a keeper! I will definately make this again. Thanks!
I only used 1 & 1/2 lbs of meat. I added some chopped onions (probably about 1/2 cup, maybe more) to the hamburger mixture, omitted the egg & garlic salt & increased the minced garlic. After hamburger was cooked, I deglazed the pan w/ about a 1/2 cup or so of pinot grigio (it's what I had open) & quickly reduced it down by half. This helped add flavor & moisture to the mix. I added about half a pkg. of chopped, frozen but thawed spinach, as well as some basil, oregano & parmesan cheese when I added the cream cheese ( I decreased the cheese some per other reviews) & pasta sauce. I had some mixture leftover so I stuffed some manicotti shells & froze them. I topped the shells w/ mozzarella before baking & a little romano & fresh chopped parsley after baking. These were delicious! I thought the wine added a nice dimension to the dish. I'm eager to try it w/ some italian sausage w/ the hamburger...thanks Cara!
Delicious! i used 1 lb ground turkey. the original recipe calls for 3 lbs meat i think thats why other reviews state its too dry and i think 1 box of shells would NEVER be enough for 3 lbs of meat. i also added 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper 1 chopped onion and about 1TBS of italian seasoning while the meat was cooking. FYI there is no need to cook the shells before stuffing. cooked pasta is a bit hard (for me) to handle. take the cooking time for the pasta (10 mins) and add it to the baking time (45 minutes total should do it) cover with foil the first 30 minutes and top with cheese and bake uncovered 15 more and it is just GREAT!
I just made this last night for myself and my husband following the recipe exactly. This produces an enormous amount of food! However the shells freeze and re-heat easily. It was definitely a hit. However I felt like I needed more pasta sauce - maybe 2 jars instead of 1. The shells were not completely covered. This tastes delicious and was really easy to make.
I only used about 3/4 lb ground meat and about 1/2 box stove top stuffing mixed into the cooked meat mixture. That really put it over the edge and gave it great flavor! Needs more sauce too.
This is a wonderful recipe! I added a few extra spices like sweet basil oregano and a lot more garlic. My family LOVED the finished product and has requested it again in the same weeek. The cream cheese adds a creamy texture that makes it unique to most shell recipes.
everyone just loved this recipe - also froze a batch and served 3mths - later and were still a big hit
Excellent! These shells were awesome the cream cheese really gave them that extra little tang. The only thing I did was add a little oregano to the meat mixture. Delicious I can't wait to make these again!
Very unimpressive. A glorified (and much more expensive) version of Italian Style Hamburger Helper. Essentially a good meal but be prepared to seriously tweak ingredients and amounts (specifically increase cream cheese decrease meat and be creative with seasonings; even a novice in the kitchen would be able to come up with 25 ways to improve upon beef seasonings).
