Ground Turkey Stuffed Shells

These ground turkey stuffed shells are my most popular recipe of all time! Large pasta shells stuffed to the brim with ground turkey and cheese and covered with tomato sauce and yes, even more cheese. Serve with a basket of rosemary sea salt dinner rolls or addictive cheddar bay biscuits!

I wanted to make stuffed shells, and it needed to be with whatever was lying around the apartment – so I ended up with ground turkey stuffed shells, and I thought they were really good!

Substitutions for ground turkey stuffed shells

• Feel free to substitute the ground turkey for beef or chicken. Or you can remove the meat altogether and add spinach instead. Not gonna lie, sometimes I like the vegetarian way even better.
• If you don’t have garlic cloves, you can substitute any of the below:
  • 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• You don’t have to use reduced fat ricotta or 2% mozzarella, it just helps cut down on the calorie count a little. You can use the full milk version of each and it’ll be faaaaabulous.

How to video with step by step instructions

Apologies for the quality of the photos in this video, but I haven’t had a chance to get new ones since I originally made this recipe. Lots of people requested a step by step tutorial, and I thought this would be an easy way to show you how they’re made:

Side of bread, coming right up

• Rosemary Sea Salt Dinner Rolls
• Copycat Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits
• Copycat Olive Garden Breadsticks by Lil Luna
• Individual Garlic Cheese Breads by Cafe Delites
• Roasted Garlic Rosemary Focaccia Bread by Little Spice Jar
• Cheesy Garlic Bombs by Damn Delicious
• Pull Apart Garlic Bread by Gather for Bread

After you’ve made this recipe, please leave a comment below with a rating – and if you came from Pinterest, add a photo to the Pin of what you make to the pin to share your experience!

Ground Turkey Stuffed Shells

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★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

• Author: Leslie Kiszka
• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 25 minutes
• Total Time: 45 minutes
• Yield: 16 large shells 1x

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Description

Large pasta shells stuffed to the brim with ground turkey and cheese and covered with tomato sauce and yes, even more cheese! Serve with a basket of addictive cheddar bay biscuits!

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Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 16 jumbo pasta shells
• 1 pound lean ground turkey
• 1 jar spaghetti sauce (choose your favorite!)
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup parsley, chopped
• 8 ounces reduced fat ricotta cheese
• 8 ounces shredded 2% mozzarella cheese, divided
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper, to taste

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Instructions

1. Preheat over to 350°F. Spray an 8×8 glass dish with non-stick spray and set aside.
2. While that’s warming up, cook pasta al dente according to the directions on the box. Once cooked, set aside to cool.
3. Brown ground turkey, adding in chopped garlic.
   Note: If you don’t have garlic cloves, you can substitute: 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic,
   1/8 teaspoon garlic powder, or 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt.
4. Cover the bottom of the baking dish with half the spaghetti sauce. Set aside.
5. In a medium bowl, lightly beat one egg. Add the ground turkey mix, ricotta cheese, half the mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, and parsley. Add a little salt and pepper if you’d like, and mix well.
6. Using a spoon, stuff each shell with the mixture you’ve created. It can be kind of tricky, depending on how “curly” your noodles are, but I promise it’s worth it. I usually spoon mixture up under one of the curves and then fill the rest – it seems to be the easiest.
7. As you’re stuffing the shells, place each shell in the glass baking dish. Place them closely together so they don’t tip over and cram as many as you can into the pan.
8. Pour the remaining spaghetti sauce over the shells, then cover in the remaining mozzarella cheese.
9. Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes (or until the cheese is bubbling on the top).
10. Serve with a side of garlic bread or cheesy biscuits and enjoy!

Notes

• Feel free to substitute the ground turkey for beef or chicken. Or you can remove the meat altogether and add spinach instead.
• If you don’t have garlic cloves, you can substitute: 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic, 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder, or 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt.
• You don’t have to use reduced fat ricotta or 2% mozzarella, it just helps cut down on the calorie count a little. You can use the full milk version of each.

• Category: Entree
• Method: Bake
• Cuisine: Italian

Keywords: stuffed shells, ground turkey stuffed shells, pasta, cheese, dinner

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