‘The Pioneer Woman’: Ree Drummond’s Easy Shrimp Scampi Stuffed Shells Recipe Is a Tasty Spin on a Classic

Ree Drummond takes a favorite recipe — shrimp scampi — and gives it a new spin. The Pioneer Woman star makes a tasty shrimp and cheese filling for stuffed shells, tops it with sauce, and bakes the delicious dinner.

Ree Drummond created a spin on shrimp scampi

Drummond made her shrimp scampi stuffed shells recipe on an episode of The Pioneer Woman when she was making recipes she could eat for dinner the same night and freeze for a future meal.

“I have gotten into the habit of doubling up on dinner — making one for now and a second to freeze for later,” she said. “It is such a lifesaver with teenage boys in the house.”

Drummond continued, “I’m making shrimp scampi stuffed shells. We’ll have a pan of it for dinner tonight and then I’ll put the second pan in the freezer and we’ll whip it out whenever we need it.”

How to make Ree Drummond’s shrimp scampi stuffed shells recipe

Drummond started by boiling jumbo pasta shells, drained them and cooled the pasta slightly.

Next, she sauteed onions and garlic in a skillet. “Shrimp scampi is one of my favorite dishes in the universe and turning it into a stuffed shell casserole? Oh boy,” she said. “This definitely has my name written all over it but the boys happen to love it too.”

The Food Network host chopped shrimp into bite-sized pieces and added them to the pan, along with crushed red pepper, white wine, and lemon juice. “The combo of the garlic and the wine and the lemon juice is pretty much all I want in life,” she noted. “I love it so much.”

Drummond added salt and pepper, turned off the heat, and poured the mixture onto a plate to allow the shrimp to cool before putting it into the stuffed shell filling.

For the white sauce, Drummond added butter to the skillet, whisked flour into it, and cooked it for 3 minutes. She added milk and heavy cream, “whisking constantly and cooking until it’s thickened.”

Finally, The Pioneer Woman star added garlic, parsley, salt, and pepper to the pan and let the sauce simmer.

‘The Pioneer Woman star made a cheese filling and assembled the casserole

For the cheese mixture, Drummond combined ricotta cheese, softened cream cheese, parmesan cheese, a beaten egg, salt, pepper, and parsley. “I like how you just keep layering in the flavors in all the different components,” she said.

The Food Network host folded the shrimp into the cheese mixture. “Basically you’re going to wind up with just a cheesy, creamy, garlicky, lemony, shrimpy cheese mixture,” she said.

Drummond spooned some of the sauce on the bottom of a baking dish, then stuffed each shell with the shrimp and cheese mixture. “You just want to hold it open, get a good spoonful and see how much you can get into one shell,” she said. “You want them to be full enough that it almost looks like it’s about to pour out.”

She placed half of the shells into the baking dish, topped them with sauce, and added a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese. Drummond repeated the process in another pan for a future dinner that she covered and put in the freezer.

She baked the stuffed shells in a 375 degree Fahrenheit oven for 25 minutes.

The full recipe is available on the Food Network website.