Classic stuffed shells got an Instant Pot makeover! Less than 1 hour to make these satisfying stuffed shells from start to finish. And it’ll actually take about 15 minutes tops of your time. The rest is just a waiting game!
- No need to pre-cook the pasta means no dirtying extra pot.
- And instead of spooning the filling into the shells, put the filling into a piping bag (or a ziplock bag) and pipe into the shells. It’s so much faster that way.
Stuffed shells have never been SO EASY!!!
Speedy tips for quickest stuffed shells:
- Multi-task! Start with browning the ground beef. And while the meat is cooking, which will take about 10 minutes, work on ricotta filling and pasta. But make sure to quickly stir meat a few times.
- Good quality pasta sauce. I love Rao’s Homemade Tomato Basil Sauce.
- No need to par-cook the pasta shells, which not only saves you time, but also one less pot to clean!
- Use a piping bag (or a ziplock bag with one corner cut) to fill the pasta shells with ricotta filling. It’s so much faster than spooning the filling into each shell.
You can’t wrong with classic ricotta cheese filling! It’s a classic for a reason. Simple, flavorful and oh-so-creamy!
And here are step by step photos to show you how to assemble the dish in an Instant Pot.
Final step: give it a good stir before serving! All the meat is on the bottom, so you want to gently stir from top to bottom and back to top. 🙂 Enjoy!
Instant Pot Stuffed Shells with Meat Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 15 oz ricotta cheese
- 1 egg
- 4 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded, divided (about 1lb)
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
- 8 oz conchiglioni pasta/ jumbo pasta shells
- 2 cups water
- 24 oz pasta sauce
Instructions
- To brown the meat: set the Instant Pot to Sauté.
- When the display reads “HOT”, add ground beef, salt and seasonings and brown the meat, breaking it apart, about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally.
- To make the cheese filling: while meat is browning, in a medium bowl, combine ricotta cheese, egg, parmesan cheese and 3 cups of mozzarella cheese. Mix well and transfer the mixture in a piping bag with a round tip (or a ziplock bag with one corner cut).
- Fill the pasta shells with the cheese mixture.
- Once the meat is browned, drain, if needed, and spread it evenly in the bottom of the pan. (Note: deglaze the pan with 1/4 cup of water if there is any bits and pieces are stuck to the pan.)
- To assemble: layer the filled pasta shells over the meat.
- Pour water and then pasta sauce over the pasta. Do NOT stir.
- Close the lid and make sure the valve is set to “sealing”.
- Set the Instant Pot to Pressure Cook/Manual for 8 minutes on high. (NOTE: It took 20-24 minutes for my IP to come to pressure.)
- Do quick release by carefully turning the valve to venting. And carefully open the lid.
- Sprinkle remaining 1 cup of mozzarella cheese and close the lid. Let it sit for about 3 minutes and then open the lid. Stir gently and serve.
Video
Notes
- Store in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- You can freeze this recipe for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
* Disclaimer: All nutrition information are estimates only. Read full nutrition disclosure.
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Reader's Reviews
I absolutely love this recipe and so does my fam! They request it almost every week. I’ve never had any issues, follow the recipe to a T, which really isn’t like me. Haha. Tonight, however, I will be veering a bit and making this with regular pasta shells and not the big ones because my store didn’t have the big ones. Not sure how it will turn out… I may just layer the cheese on top of the pasta since they aren’t big enough to “stuff”.
Yay, I’m so happy to read your feedback, Emily! Thank you! And I hope your last version with regular shells worked out for you.
I didn’t have a burn notice, but my family found it really salty. I would skip the additional tsp of salt. It definitely is not needed. I didn’t need to add water to deglaze but I did add a bit of water to the jar of sauce after I dumped it to get the rest from the sides. The shells cooked nicely and weren’t too hard or soft. However, the cheese I piped into the shells did come out a lot. It seems like all the work piping the cheese in was almost pointless since It didn’t stay in. It was okay but I probably wouldn’t make this again.
Thank you for your honest feedback, Mal.
I have made the recipe 3 times because my husband is Italian and we love stuffed shells and I really wanted it to work! Everytime I have gotten the burn message and have had a huge mess and had to finish cooking in the oven. I have tried to tweak a little, but the cheese spills out and the meat and cheese combo burn…done using this recipe!
Hi, Karen. Bummer that it didn’t work out for you. And kuddos to you for trying 3 times! The top 2 tips for preventing the “BURN” notice in this recipe are:
1. to make sure to deglaze the pan well after browning the meat. Even the smallest spots with stuck meat could trigger “burn” notice.
2. to make sure to layer the ingredients properly and not mix anything. The browned meat should evenly cover the entire bottom of the pot. Then layer the stuffed shells, filling side up. Pour the sauce over the noodles and try not to let it drip down to the bottom. But the meat should be a good barrier to not let the sauce contact the bottom of the pot, which triggers the “burn” notice.
Hope this helps. You can also watch my video on how to prevent “burn” notice on Instant Pot in general.
What kind of Pasta sauce do you use
Hi, Jessika! I’m a huge fan of Rao’s pasta sauces. My favorites are their Tomato Basil Sauce and Marinara sauce. Hope this helps.
We made this. Flavor was great.
Meat burned on bottom of pan.
No steam developed. We added more water and cooked again.
Would make again if cooking problem was solved.
Hi, Kathy. Thank you for your feedback. It sounds like you’ve gotten “burn” notice. It typically happens if the pot wasn’t deglazed well. If there were any brown bits from browning the meat, it could cause that. I made this video a little white ago on how to prevent that “burn” message in the future. Hope you’ll find it helpful.
Also got burn notice multiple times during cooking process. Browned meat in separate pan so that wasn’t the issue. Will try adding water to bottom with meat, and adding additional water next time (pasta sauce might have been too thick).
Hi, Kym. Sorry to hear you had “burn” notice. I know it’s so annoying. I’ve made this video on how to prevent “burn” notice, hope you’ll find it helpful.
how many people does this recipe serve?
Hi, Linda. This should feed about 8 people.
Second time making and it turned out even better. This time when I added the water I poured it along the edge of the liner so it went to the bottom with the meat and not so much on top of the shells. Then I just dumped the pasta sauce over the shells. Perfect fast dinner that tastes like it took more effort. I used 8 qt ip.
Aww, so happy you enjoy this recipe, Amber!!! Thank you for sharing your feedback!
The shells could have cooked longer
Thanks for your feedback, Dennis!
Not sure how it tastes because it burned on the bottom. I couldn’t even get through the cooking process. I did nothing wrong and followed the directions completely. My suggestion would be to put sauce on the bottom and then layer the meat and pasta.
Hi, Bryant. Thanks for your feedback. But no, putting pasta sauce on the bottom is a sure way to cause burn notice. Thick sauces like pasta sauce scorch and trigger burn notice. I’m not sure what you mean by “I couldn’t even get through the cooking process.” Do you mean you got “burn” message before started the count down? If so, the most likely cause is that the pot wasn’t deglazed well after browning the meat. I made this video about “BURN” notice. Hope you’ll find it helpful.