Made with pre-cooked frozen meatballs, these meatball stuffed shells save you time without sacrificing flavor! It's an easy comfort food recipe you can whip up for dinner tonight!
While I love the traditional version of stuffed shells, adding meatballs gives the classic recipe a fun and delicious twist!
And, there's no need to make the meatballs from scratch! Your favorite store-bought variety is perfectly okay to use.
If you're looking for more meatball recipes, you need to try my Slow Cooker Beef and Pork Meatballs, Turkey Zucchini Meatballs, and my Pesto Turkey Meatballs!
Just don't forget to serve dinner with a crusty piece of baguette garlic bread on the side!
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Why you'll love this recipe
- Versatile - Serve stuffed Shells with meatballs as a main dish or an easy appetizer! Individual meatball stuffed shells on a toothpick are the cutest!
- Few ingredients - This stuffed shells recipe requires minimal ingredients.
- Time-saving - Store-bought and fully-cooked frozen meatballs are best.
- Crowd-pleaser - Both kids and adults love this recipe!
- Easy to double - Feeds a crowd with minimal effort!
Ingredients needed
- Frozen meatballs: I used Bove's Italian Style All Beef Meatballs made with ground beef. The size of the meatballs is perfect for this recipe, and they taste delicious. Using a frozen meatball doesn't sacrifice flavor and saves so much time!
- Jumbo stuffing shells: Pick your favorite brand of jumbo shells. Any brand will work for this recipe.
- Marinara sauce: As you can see in the photo above, I used Bove's pasta sauce for this recipe as well! Any type of marinara sauce, red sauce, or spaghetti sauce will work for this recipe.
- Ricotta cheese: What would a stuffed shell recipe be without ricotta cheese? Of course, this recipe for stuffed shells contains ricotta cheese!
- Mozzarella cheese: Mozzarella cheese goes inside the pasta shell AND on top.
- Parmesan cheese: Freshly grated or shredded parmesan cheese is best.
- Seasonings: Fresh parsley, garlic powder, dried oregano, kosher salt, and ground black pepper are needed.
*See the recipe card below for a complete list of ingredients and quantities needed.
How to make Meatball Stuffed Shells
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Drain and set aside.
Mix - Mix the ricotta cheese, 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, garlic powder, dried oregano, fresh parsley, salt, and pepper.
Spread ½ cup of the marinara sauce in an even layer on the bottom of your baking dish.
Stuff the shells with about 1 teaspoon of the ricotta cheese mixture and 1 meatball.
Add more sauce - Add another layer of red sauce on top of the meatball stuffed shells.
Add more cheese - Add the remaining shredded mozzarella cheese and remaining parmesan cheese on top of the meatball stuffed pasta shells.
Bake - Cover the pan with foil. Bake the shells in a 350°F oven for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes, until the top of the shells are covered in melty cheese! Serve and enjoy!
Substitutions and variations
- Meatballs: I used meatballs made with ground beef. You can also use frozen turkey meatballs, ground chicken meatballs, pork meatballs, or an Italian sausage-style meatball.
- Ricotta cheese: A common substitute for ricotta cheese is cottage cheese. Cottage cheese has a very similar flavor and texture to ricotta cheese. It's often preferred over ricotta cheese because it's high in protein.
- Seasonings: Italian seasoning blend, dried basil, dried parsley, fresh garlic, or fresh herbs can all be included in this recipe for added flavor.
Serving suggestions
While meatball stuffed shells serve as a meal all on its own, adding a side dish or two won't hurt!
Here are a few of my favorites:
How to store and reheat
- How to store: Store leftovers in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
- How to reheat: Reheat leftover stuffed shells in the microwave for about a minute at a time, until warmed through.
Expert tips
- Make them in advance. You can easily make this recipe ahead of time. Assemble the entire dish, cover tightly with aluminum foil, and store in the refrigerator until you're ready to bake.
- Use smaller-sized meatballs. Make sure to choose frozen meatballs that are smaller in size. They need to fit easily into the jumbo shells along with the ricotta cheese mixture.
- Spice it up. Add a pinch of red pepper flakes for some extra heat!
- Shred your cheeses yourself. They'll melt better and taste better too.
- Prevent the foil from sticking. Spray the underside of the aluminum foil with cooking spray to prevent the foil from sticking to the melty mozzarella cheese.
Frequently asked questions
One possible reason for watery shells is that the shells were overcooked. Another possible reason is that the cheese stuffing contains too much moisture.
It will take about 30-45 minutes to bake meatballs at 350°F, depending on the size of the meatballs.
Hard pasta shells would indicate that they were undercooked when you were boiling them. Hard pasta shells could also mean that they were overcooked in the oven.
Pasta recipes you might also like
Try out some of my other delicious and popular Italian-style pasta recipes!
If you tried this Meatball Stuffed Shells Recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and tell me how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Meatball Stuffed Shells
Meatball stuffed shells is a classic stuffed shell recipe with a twist! Jumbo pasta shells are filled with a ricotta cheese mixture, topped with marinara sauce and stuffed with Italian style meatballs.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: dinner
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: Italian American
Ingredients
- 30 small frozen meatballs - thawed
- 1 package jumbo pasta stuffing shells
- 2 cups ricotta cheese
- 1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese - divided
- ¾ cup grated parmesan cheese - divided
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 ½ cups marinara sauce - divided
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Drain and set aside.
- Make the ricotta cheese mixture. In a small mixing bowl, combine the ricotta, ½ cup mozzarella cheese, ½ cup parmesan cheese, garlic powder, dried oregano, fresh parsley, salt and pepper.
- Using a spoon, spread ½ cup of the marinara sauce in an even layer on the bottom of your baking dish.
- Stuff the pasta shells. Stuff each shell with about 1 teaspoon of the ricotta mixture and 1 thawed meatball. Place each stuffed shell in the baking dish in even rows. You will end up with 30 individual stuffed shells.
- After all the pasta shells are stuffed, top the shells with the remaining 1 cup marinara sauce. Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese and ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese on top of the marinara sauce.
- Cover the dish of meatball stuffed shells with foil. Bake in the oven, covered, for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes, until the cheese is melty.
- Let cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
Notes
- If you are worried about your foil sticking to the cheese on top of the stuffed shells, lightly spray the underside of the foil with cooking spray. This should prevent the foil from sticking.
- Stuffed shells make for excellent leftovers! Store leftovers in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- The nutrition information shown below is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for professional medical advice.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 877
- Sugar: 10.4 g
- Sodium: 1878.8 mg
- Fat: 46.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 63.3 g
- Fiber: 6.9 g
- Protein: 50.9 g
- Cholesterol: 149.3 mg
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💭Did you make this recipe? Please leave me a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review and tell me how much you loved it!
Tee Cee says
Is this freezeable? And if so, any specific instructions?
Katie says
I'm so sorry I haven't tested freezing the shells so I can't say for sure. Typically, stuffed shells are freezer-friendly though.
Susie says
Sunday dinner was homemade spaghetti and meatballs in the crockpot. Instead of just "leftovers" used them for this dish. Great idea, so easy. Everyone loved the meatball stuffed shells.
Katie says
I'm so glad everyone loved them! It's definitely a great way to repurpose leftover meatballs.
Tara S. says
So delicious. I have 2 toddlers and they thought this was so neat with the meatball in it and ate it all up! I actually replaced the ricotta with a 1/2 brick of softened cream cheese and it was perfect. Definitely going to try with ricotta next time though!
Katie says
I'm so glad you liked it! I never would have thought of that substitution but it sounds delicious!