Why hasn’t anyone put pepperoni on pasta before? Even Subway knows pepperoni goes on everything! What’s wrong with us? That changes today with this recipe for pizza casserole that’s 10x better than settling for a Boboli crust.
Pizza is a simple yet brilliant creation. Crust, sauce, meat, and cheese are really all you need. No, Kevin McCallister, no one ordered you a plain cheese pizza. Respect yourself. We are switching things up today and replacing the crust with pasta. Not only is it essentially the same thing only without the yeast, it also happens to be in my cupboard 99% more often that pizza crust.
The ingredients for pizza casserole are simple. Rotini past, marinara sauce (I used spicy because I’m a daredevil), Italian sausage, mozzarella cheese, other cheeses, and pepperoni. I know marinara and pizza sauce aren’t the same thing, but marinara just sounds better for this. The recipe calls for ground Italian sausage, which the grocery store didn’t have, so I bought Italian sausage links and removed the casing before cooking. You could just as easily cook them whole and then slice them, but the small chunks work much better in pasta. Just remember, you don’t have to follow a recipe to the letter. They’re all just made up anyway.
I know how much you all like visual aids, so here’s the process via picture.
The ingredients
Cooking for dummies
Pasta, sauce, sausage. You could stop now, but don’t
It’s alive. It’s alive!
Now you’re ready to put it in the oven. Nothing fancy here, just stick in it there for 25 minutes.
It’s pasta. It’s pizza. It’s a pasta pie.
It really doesn’t get much easier than this recipe. I guess that’s why moms always make casseroles. They involve very little work but seem impressive. Boil pasta. Cook sausage. Layer ingredients. Sit back and wait. If I could manage it, so can you. The real trouble is not eating the entire thing by yourself. I can and frequently do eat full pizzas, so it isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
The recipe was bastardized from this one found on Facebook by @JntPlnt. I altered some of the ingredients at my whim and cut down some quantities because I don’t have any friends.
Ingredients:
- 1 (16 ounce) package uncooked rotini pasta
- 1 lb ground Italian sausage
- 1 (24 ounce) jar pasta sauce
- 1 (16 ounce) Italian cheese blend
- 1 (4 ounce) can mushrooms, drained
- 12 ounces mozzarella cheese
- 6 ounces sliced pepperoni
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9X13 casserole dish.
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place pasta in the pot, cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until al dente, and drain.
- In a skillet over medium heat, cook the sausage until evenly brown, drain grease. Mix in the cooked pasta and pasta sauce. Pour into prepared casserole dish.
- Layer mozzarella, mushrooms, pepperoni, cheese blend, and more pepperoni in that order on top of the pasta.
- Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until bubbly and lightly browned.