Description
Easy creamy paprika steak shells recipe with tender steak and pasta in smoky cream sauce. Perfect comfort food ready in 40 minutes.
Ingredients
For the Perfect Pasta & Steak:
- 12 oz shell pasta (the medium ones, not tiny or huge)
- 1 lb steak (sirloin or ribeye), cut into bite-sized pieces
- Salt and black pepper, to taste
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
For That Incredible Creamy Sauce:
- 3 cloves garlic, minced (jar garlic tastes like sadness, use fresh)
- 1½ teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ½ cup beef broth
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese (the good stuff, not sawdust)
For the Finishing Touch:
- Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish
Instructions
Fill your biggest pot with water and salt it until it tastes like ocean water. My grandmother taught me that and she was right about everything food-related. Bring it to a hard boil, add the shells, and cook them one minute less than the box says. They’ll finish in the sauce and won’t get mushy.
Drain them but don’t rinse. You want that starchy coating to help the sauce stick. Set them aside and try not to eat them plain while you cook the steak. I have no willpower with plain pasta.
Cut the steak into chunks about thumb-sized. Pat them dry with paper towels first or they’ll steam instead of brown. This step is annoying but it matters. Season everything with salt, pepper, and paprika until every piece looks like it rolled in rust.
Let the seasoned steak sit on the counter for ten minutes while you get organized. Room temperature meat browns better than cold meat. I learned this from a cooking show and felt stupid for not knowing it already.
Get your pan screaming hot over medium-high heat. Add oil when it shimmers like water. Drop in the steak pieces but don’t crowd them – work in batches if your pan’s small. Crowded steak steams and that’s gross.
Leave them alone for 2-3 minutes. I know it’s tempting to poke them but don’t. When you can lift a piece easily and it’s got a brown crust, flip it. Cook another 2-3 minutes until browned but still pink inside. They look underdone but they’re not – they’ll finish cooking in the sauce.
Take the steak out and put it on a plate. Your pan should have brown crusty bits stuck to the bottom. That’s flavor, don’t clean it off.
Turn heat down to medium and add butter to the same pan. It’ll foam up and smell like heaven. When the foaming stops, add garlic and stir it around for maybe a minute until it smells amazing and turns light brown.
Watch it like a hawk because garlic goes from perfect to burnt in about three seconds. Burnt garlic tastes like disappointment and there’s no fixing it. If you burn it, start over.
Pour in the cream and broth all at once. It’ll bubble up dramatically – this is normal and fun to watch. Use your wooden spoon to scrape up all those brown bits from the bottom. This is called deglazing and it’s where all the good flavor comes from.
Let it simmer for 3-4 minutes, stirring every now and then. It should thicken enough to coat the back of your spoon. If it’s not thickening, turn up the heat a little. If it gets too thick, add more broth.
Take the pan off the heat and stir in the Parmesan. It should melt smooth and creamy. If you add cheese to sauce that’s too hot, it gets lumpy and weird. Nobody wants lumpy cheese sauce.
The sauce should be pale orange now from the paprika and smooth as silk. If it’s not smooth, put it back on low heat and whisk like your life depends on it.
Add the pasta and steak back to the pan. Put it back on low heat and toss everything around until it’s all coated. The sauce should cling to everything instead of sitting in puddles at the bottom.
Taste it and add more salt if it needs it. Sprinkle parsley on top and serve it immediately while it’s hot. Cold creamy pasta is sad creamy pasta.
Notes
Room temperature steak browns better. Take it out of the fridge 15 minutes before cooking. Cold steak hitting hot pan = uneven cooking and nobody wants that.
Save a cup of pasta water before you drain. It’s liquid gold for fixing broken sauces. The starch helps everything come back together. I keep a coffee mug by the stove for this.
Pat your steak dry. I said it before but I’m saying it again because it’s that important. Wet meat steams, dry meat browns. Brown is flavor, steam is sadness.
If your sauce breaks and looks curdled, take it off heat and whisk in cold cream one tablespoon at a time. Usually saves it. If not, order pizza and try again tomorrow.
Taste your food. I can’t tell you how much salt your steak needs or how much pepper you like. Cook, taste, adjust. That’s how you get good at this.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American