French Onion Stuffed Shells.
French onion stuffed shells for the win today!
These are savory, sweet, warm, cheesy and cozy to make all of your winter dreams come true.
Well, it’s been a little heavy over here with the comfort foods! I can’t help it. Snow, cold winter, staying at home – it’s the perfect combo for delicious, comforting meals. It started with the sun dried tomato gnocchi and morphed into this amazing mess of a dish.
And I bet you were thinking I left my french onion obsession back in 2021 where it belongs!
Um, no. I did not.
But there’s a good reason for it!
Enter, french onion stuffed shells.
Oh my WORD.
These are true french onion stuffed shells, just like the soup. This time, I didn’t add sweet potatoes or chicken or even spinach (though I wouldn’t mind some greens!). These are warm and cheesy and perfectly comforting and remind me so much of that wonderful, cozy soup.
Slow caramelized onions. Gruyere cheese. Soft pasta shells. Ricotta and parm. A quick little french onion pan sauce that may as well be the soup.
I’d say we’re all set for the month!
Here’s how we do it!
The filling is a classic ricotta one – but loaded with tons of caramelized onions. That gets stuffed in the soft pasta shells. The shells then take a nap in a lovely little caramelized onion sauce. They are covered with a blanket of cheese and crunchy breadcrumbs and baked until bubbly and melty.
WHOA.
Pretty darn easy.
These are unlike any stuffed shells I’ve had before. They are incredible. Yes, the dish kind of reminds me of my french onion chicken lasagna rollups, but this isn’t quite as time intensive or high maintenance. It does require a little work, but you can prep it ahead of time too. And leftovers are wildly delish.
I know I’ve used that word about six times already in regards to how good these taste but I can’t help it. Someone find me a thesaurus!
I’ll wait while you make a pan of these. xo
French Onion Stuffed Shells
French Onion Stuffed Shells
Ingredients
- 4 sweet onions, thinly sliced
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- kosher salt and pepper
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 8 ounces jumbo pasta shells, you need about 20 shells
- 2 cups ricotta cheese
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup grated gruyere cheese
- ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese, plus more for topping
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 ½ cups chicken, beef or vegetable stock
- ⅓ cup cream
- 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese, for topping
- ¼ cup seasoned breadcrumbs, for topping
- fresh parsley or thyme for topping
Instructions
- Heat the butter in a large oven-safe skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onions with a pinch of salt, pepper and thyme. It’s important to season each layer of cooking here! Cook, stirring often, until the onions caramelize, about 30 minutes. Be sure to watch them closely so they don’t burn! Turn down the heat if needed and continue to stir. Once caramelized, stir in the garlic. Turn off the heat once finished, but leave them in the pan.
- While the onions are cooking, bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta shells according to the directions. Once cooked, drain them and place them on a baking sheet or plate to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a bowl, stir together the ricotta cheese, egg, gruyere cheese, parmesan cheese and a pinch of salt, pepper and dried thyme. Take half of the caramelized onions from the pan and stir them into the ricotta mixture. This is your filling!
- Fill each shell with the filling, stuffing it full but not overflowing.
- Turn the heat to medium-low under the remaining onions in the pan. Stir in the tablespoon of flour and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Slowly stream in the stock while stirring. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes - the mixture will thicken a bit. Stir in the cream. Turn off the heat and place the shells open-side up in the french onion sauce. Top with the mozzarella cheese and breadcrumbs.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden and bubbly. Serve immediately with extra parmesan and fresh herbs on top.
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
Oh dear lord. LOVE.
34 Comments on “French Onion Stuffed Shells.”
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Oh. My. Gosh. Those look and sound amazing! Can’t wait to try this recipe!
thanks larissa!
Can these be prepped the night before?
they probably can, but they will be drier than if made the same day! the pasta shells will probably soak up some of the sauce (since it’s not tomato based). if you make it the night before, you might want to try to add in a bit of stock or liquid to the sauce before baking, or store the shells separately overnight and throw them in the sauce right before baking!
Storing separately is a great suggestion, thank you!!
This looks like a keeper! Can’t wait to try
thanks emily!
Planning to try these soon! Your recipe doesn’t list what to do with the second half of the onion mixture. I’m guessing it’s added to the sauce, could you clarify? Thank you! Sounds so amazing.
Oh gosh never mind! It is clearer reading it again.
haha no worries! xo
Yum, I want this tonight!
thanks alicia!
I made this tonight and it was super delicious! Very rich. An arugula salad on the side provided a nice freshness.
I did make a couple of minor changes…
First, I caramelized the onions for an hour instead of 30 mins. (I almost always take onions a little further than recipes call for.)
Second, after the initial cook time, I cranked the oven up to 450 and did another 10 mins to get the breadcrumbs extra crispy.
Followed the recipe pretty closely otherwise, and am super pleased with the result!
Will definitely make again!
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Do you use heavy cream? I wanted to make sure I use the right kind.
I used heavy cream when I made this and it turned out perfectly.
I made this for my family the other night. It was a hit! Everyone loves it. Just a wonderful flavor. Will definitely make again. Thanks for a wonderful recipe!
Loved these! So delicious and really simple. This would be a great dish to make for a dinner party (once the pandemic is over :-))
Made this tonight for dinner, it was a big hit! However, I had to sub rigatoni because my store was out of jumbo shells. I’d like to try it was the shells next time. Great recipe!
SO, SO GOOD! Made this for a Lenten Friday and it got rave reviews! Your recipes never disappoint.
This is incredible! I topped with more of the gruyere and mozzarella. This was really easy with a huge taste payout.
Absolutely loved this!! However it made quite a bit, what are your thoughts on freezing leftovers?
What size onions do you use?
These are amazing. A couple of tips: for husbands or kids who don’t like onions, I made these with only two vidalia onions and put the onions only in the sauce, with no onions added to the shell filling. That way, it is easy enough to give the onion-haters no onion on their plates. My husband, who claims to hate onions, loved this and I got extra onions just for me. So don’t discount this recipe if you have some picky eaters in your household. I’ve sliced up a whole bag of vidalias to freeze in two-onion portions so that I can make this recipe all winter long. Thanks for such a great recipe!
Just made this tonight and it was delicious! My fiancée loved it too. I sprinkled a little Everything Bagel spice on my second helping 😋 and it was perfection.
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Do you think the filling could be baked and served as an appetizer (minus the egg)?
Is there another cheese I could sub for greyere?
This looks amazing and I have it on deck for this week. Do you think it would freeze well if I only cooked off half? Maybe if I packaged and froze the shells and the sauce separately? Any tips on here from trying to freeze half?
can you use cottage cheese instead of ricotta?
These were awesome! The only thing I would note is that my onions took a lot longer than 30 mins to caramelize – prob more like 50 mins or an hour. So just alot yourself enough time and this one is a keeper!
I made this last night, and I rarely go back to the blog to rate a recipe, but WOW!!!! This is definitely one of our family’s top 5 favorite recipes we have ever made! (And we try new recipes every week!) To make it even better, my almost two year old had seconds AND ate some of mine! Keeping this in rotation from here on out. Thank you!
These are absolutely divine. Perfect just with a side salad. So worth the extra time and effort.