Pizza Casserole

Last week in my weekly menu, I mentioned I was making pizza casserole and had a request for the recipe. This is fairly quick (from start to finish it takes me an hour, including making the sauce) and usually family and kid friendly. It makes a lot, so half the recipe if you’re cooking for less than four and don’t want leftovers.

Pizza Casserole

Ingredients:

• Your choice of any combination meats: 1 lb sausage, 1 package pepperoni, Canadian bacon, ham, bacon, hamburger or any other meats you like on your pizza
• Your choice of any combination vegetables: sliced olives, chopped green peppers, chopped onions, sliced mushrooms or other favorite pizza toppings.
• 3 cups mozzarella cheese
• 2 batches of homemade pizza sauce (or 2 jars of store bought but really, it’s easy to make your own, & tastier)
• 1 box Rotini pasta

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Cook Rotini as directed on package to al dente (do not overcook)

3. Fry up the meats you’ve chosen. For my casserole this time, I did sausage, pepperoni and ham. You can use whatever you like, really, but don’t skimp on the meat. If you’re only using sausage, for instance, use 2 lbs. Toss pepperoni in the skillet at the end, because it will keep it from getting too greasy in the casserole.

4. Chop up whatever veggies you selected. I only used black olives this time because that’s what I had in the house, and not everyone here likes green peppers and onions like I do, so I left them out. But you can use anything. I usually toss veggies in with meats for 5 minutes just to heat them through, especially mushrooms, but I suggest doing it with other veggies as well.

5. Once pasta is done, put in a large casserole dish that you’ve sprayed with Pam, (I use a ceramic-covered cast iron 6 qt pot) and mix with pizza sauce, meats, veggies and 1 cup of cheese.

6. Top with 2 cups of cheese, put uncovered in oven and bake for 20-30 minutes (longer time if you have uncooked veggies in) then broil on high for 3-5 minutes to make cheese brown and bubbly. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

7. Plate on your daughter’s favorite pink plate.