This is our family's pizza casserole recipe. My kids loved to have this casserole when they would visit their grandfather. Simple ingredients make comfort food that everyone loves.
If you love pizza inspired recipes you will want to add buffalo chicken pizza, cast iron pizza dip and gourmet english muffin pizzas to your pizza recipe menu.
Why my family loves this casserole:
- Mix it up - add not only pepperoni but other Italian meats to the casserole. Soppressata, salami and pepper coated salami are some of our favorites.
- Add veggies - if your family is one of the ones that the only way to get kids to eat vegetables is to hide them, this is a great casserole to do that! Green bell peppers, sweet red peppers, shredded carrots and diced zucchini have all made an appearance in this pasta dish.
- Freezer friendly - this casserole is great to have stashed in the freezer for when you need to take a meal to someone who just had a baby, need a freezer meal or if you are looking to do some meal prep.
Pizza Casserole Ingredients:
- Pasta (12-16 oz box) I like a penne pasta but any short pasta will do
- ground beef (or bulk Italian sausage) - I use a 80/20 mix of ground beef or you can add another layer of flavor by substituting in ½ Italian sausage for ½ of the ground beef
- onion, white or yellow onion is what I use, chopped finely
- pizza sauce (homemade shown but Del Grosso is also a preferred brand)
- tomato paste - gives a great depth of tomato flavor be sure to try my homemade tomato paste
- tomato sauce - use your favorite marinara sauce
- mozzarella cheese - Shred fresh cheese but I usually use a bag of pre-shredded mozzarella
- pepperoni, presliced
How to make Pizza Casserole:
- Preheat oven. - 350 f / 176C
- Brown the ground beef and drain off the fat.
- Sauté the onion in the reserved beef fat.
- Cook pasta according to the package directions to al dente.
- Combine the ground beef and sautéed onions tomato paste, pizza sauce and tomato sauces stirring to combine.
- Toss in the cooked noodles and spoon half the noodle/meat mixture into the 9x13 casserole dish.
- Spread half of the mozzarella cheese over the noodles and place the pepperoni in a single layer over the noodles.
- Repeat the process of adding the second half of the pasta/meat mixture and mozzarella cheese finishing with one more layer of pepperoni.
- Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted and bubbly.
- Serve warm and gooey.
Freezing instructions
- Assemble casserole in a freezer-safe baking dish, but add an extra cup of tomato or pizza sauce to the recipe as the noodles tend to soak up the sauce as it thaws. DO NOT BAKE/
- Cover with plastic wrap and tinfoil and freeze for up to 3 months.
- Be sure to thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bake as directed.
Pizza Casserole Recipe
This is our family's pizza casserole recipe. My kids loved to have this casserole when they would visit their grandfather. Simple ingredients make a comfort food that everyone loves.
Note From Sarah
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Ingredients
- 1 Box of Pasta (12-16 oz)
- 1 pound ground beef (or bulk Italian sausage)
- 1 onion (chopped finely)
- 1 jar pizza sauce (homemade shown but Del Grosso is also a preferred brand)
- 1 small can tomato paste
- 1 small can tomato sauce
- 3 cups mozzarella cheese
- 2 cups pepperoni (sliced)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In a large skillet, over medium heat, brown the ground beef (or bulk sausage or combination of both) until the meat is no longer pink.
- Drain off the fat and transfer the cooked meat to a clean plate or bowl.
- Finely chop an onion.
- Sauté the onion in a few tablespoons of meat drippings until soft, translucent and slightly golden on some of the edges.
- Cook pasta about a minute short of al dente.
- In a large bowl, combine the ground beef and sautéed onions.
- Combine the tomato paste, pizza sauce and tomato sauces and add to the beef and onion mixture.
- Stir to combine.
- Add the cooked noodles to the bowl and stir to combine Be sure to get all the noodles up from the bottom and coated with the sauce/meat/onion mixture.
- Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with non stick spray for easier clean up.
- Spoon half the noodle/meat mixture into the 9x13 casserole dish.
- Spread half of the mozzarella cheese over the noodles.
- Place the pepperoni in a single layer over the noodles. (Feel free to add other pizza toppings at this point. Green bell pepper, mushrooms, and ricotta cheese, just to name a few.)
- Repeat the process of adding the second half of the pasta/meat mixture and mozzarella cheese.
- Add one more layer of pepperoni.
- Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted and bubbly.
- Serve warm and gooey.
Notes
Freezing instructions:
- Assemble casserole in a freezer-safe baking dish, but add an extra cup of tomato or pizza sauce to the recipe as the noodles tend to soak up the sauce as it thaws. DO NOT BAKE/
- Cover with plastic wrap and tinfoil and freeze for up to 3 months.
- Be sure to thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bake as directed.
Nutrition
Serving: 1Calories: 493kcalCarbohydrates: 9gProtein: 33gFat: 36gSaturated Fat: 15gPolyunsaturated Fat: 17gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 117mgSodium: 962mgFiber: 1gSugar: 2g
Nutrition Disclosure
Nutritional facts are estimates and are provided as a courtesy to the reader. Please utilize your own brand nutritional values to double check against our estimates. Nutritional values are calculated via a third party. Changing ingredients, amounts or cooking technique will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.
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Originally published Sep 8, 2011
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