Pizza Stuffed Pasta Shells are dinner made easy! All the great pizza flavors you love made into a freezer friendly pasta dish. Shells stuffed with sausage and pepperoni are covered with cheese and baked to perfection.
Stuffed shells are always a good idea. After you try this recipe, you’ll want to give these Stuffed Taco Shells a taste too.
Stuffed Shells- Pizza Style
Stuffed shells are a life saver! You can fill shells with any meat and flavors you like, bake them right away OR freeze for later.
Here’s why I’m obsessed with this Pizza Stuffed Shells recipe:
- Freezer friendly. You can pull these straight from the freezer and bake right away. No thawing required.
- Easy to make. Add some pizza sauce, sprinkle on a little mozzarella (or a lot!) and bake. Done!
- Kid approved. Even the pickiest eaters happily chow down on pizza pasta shells!
- Totally delicious. Using Italian sausage, peppers and olives, these stuffed shells are full of flavor!
Ingredient Notes
- Pasta shells. Look for the JUMBO shells for this recipe.
- Italian sausage. Use mild, medium or hot depending on your taste preference.
- Pizza sauce. You can’t beat the convenience of jarred sauce! Feel free to homemade pizza sauce if you prefer.
You choose the toppings. Pick your family favorites.
Make Ahead Freezer Meal
This recipe is easy enough to make fresh and bake right away. But I like to use it as a make ahead freezer meal best.
You’ll cook the pasta shells, then stuff with a mixture of browned sausage, onions, peppers and pepperoni.
Place the stuffed pizza pasta shells on a baking sheet and freeze until solid. Then, transfer to a freezer safe bag for storing.
To bake frozen stuffed shells: Cover the bottom of a baking dish with pizza sauce. Add frozen shells and cover with cheese. Bake until heated through and cheese is melty.
Toss the shells in the oven right when you get home and you’ll have dinner on the table in an effortless 45 minutes!
Tips and Tricks
- Make lots of shells at once. Have a shell stuffing party and prep pizza pasta shells, Sausage Stuffed Pasta Shells and Stuffed Taco Shells all at once. Then, you’ll have a freezer full of meals ready to heat up at a moment’s notice.
- Separate shells right away after boiling. Once the pasta shells are cooked and drained, they should be separated immediately. Otherwise they’ll stick together and become more difficult to stuff.
- Cheese options. Feel free to swap the mozzarella for parmesan or your other favorite pizza cheese.
- Side dishes. Serve stuffed pasta shells with Olive Garden Salad on the side for a well rounded meal.
More Easy Dinner Recipes
- Layered Chicken Taco Salad: this is great with leftover cooked chicken, or make it easy with a rotisserie chicken!
- Chicken Kisses: we love these easy kisses all year long! Stuffed with a creamy chicken filling and topped with a chicken gravy, ENJOY.
- Meatloaf Recipe
- Mississippi Pot Roast
- Baked Pork Chops
Pin this now to find it later
Pin It
Pizza Stuffed Pasta Shells Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 box jumbo pasta shells 12 oz
- 1 lb italian sausage removed from casings
- 3 oz pepperoni diced
- ½ green pepper seeded and diced
- 1 small onion diced
- 1 can diced black olives, drained 2.25 oz
- 2 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 can crushed tomatoes 28 oz
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese divided
- 1 jar pizza sauce about 1 1/2 cups
Instructions
- Cook large shells pasta according to package directions. Once cooked, separate and place on parchment paper on counter. Set aside.
- While pasta is cooking, brown italian sausage in a large skillet. Once browned, drain grease and return meat to skillet. Add in pepperoni, green pepper, and onion. Cook for about 3 minutes.
- Add oregano, basil, and crushed tomatoes. Over low heat, simmer until sauce is warm. Stir in 1 cup mozzarella cheese.
- Using a large spoon, stuff each shell with pizza mixture, until all shells are stuffed.
- If baking immediately, pour about 1 1/2 cups of pizza sauce in bottom of a baking dish. Choose a dish size that will fit the number of shells you are going to be cooking. For my family, we each eat about 2-3 shells per meal. On top of sauce, add shells. Cover dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes in a 350F oven. Remove foil, top with remaining cheese and bake an additional 5-15 minutes, until cheese is melted, sauce on bottom is bubbly and mixture inside shells is fully heated.
- To freeze: place uncooked stuffed shells onto a baking sheet. Place in freezer for about 30 minutes. Transfer to a freezer safe ziploc bag and store frozen. When ready to bake, follow step 5 above, but add an additional 15 minutes to the baking time…making it 45 minutes in a 350F oven (with an additionaly 5-15 to melt cheese on top). ENJOY.
Notes
- Make lots of shells at once. Have a shell stuffing party and prep pizza pasta shells, Sausage Stuffed Pasta Shells and Stuffed Taco Shells all at once. Then, you’ll have a freezer full of meals ready to heat up at a moment’s notice.
- Separate shells right away after boiling. Once the pasta shells are cooked and drained, they should be separated immediately. Otherwise they’ll stick together and become more difficult to stuff.
- Cheese options. Feel free to swap the mozzarella for parmesan or your other favorite pizza cheese.
- Side dishes. Serve stuffed pasta shells with Easy Italian Salad on the side for a well rounded meal.
- Store leftovers in refrigerator for up to 3 days, reheating in microwave or airfryer.
Nutrition
Instead of ordering delivery tonight, make Pizza Pasta Shells! Cheesy, saucy and filled with Italian sausage, this is a pizza lover’s pasta heaven.
I like Pizza
Yum! One of my two favorite comfort foods combined!
stuffed shells look awesome. Love how they are so loaded up!
Stuffed shells were one of my favorite meals growing up, but my mom never made a pizza version like these! Such a great twist on the classic and I love that they’re freezer friendly!
We do baked dinners all year long too. Thank goodness for air conditioning to battle the oven heat! Love these fun stuffed shells. I know our kids would love them too since they have pizza toppings in them!
Amy, this is going to be one of my family’s new favorites!!
Pizza and pasta together as one!! Basically a dream come true 🙂
I think this recipe would be perfect all year long, CUZ it tastes like pizza. My boys would devour this!