We identify certain combinatorially defined rational functions which, under the shuffle to Schiffmann algebra isomorphism, map to LLT polynomials in any of the distinguished copies $Λ(X^{m,n})\subset \mathcal{E}$ of the algebra of symmetric functions embedded in the elliptic Hall algebra $\mathcal{E}$ of Burban and Schiffmann. As a corollary, we deduce an explicit raising operator formula for the $\nabla$ operator applied to any LLT polynomial. In particular, we obtain a formula for $\nabla ^m s_λ$ which serves as a starting point for our proof of the Loehr-Warrington conjecture in a companion paper to this one.