Pizza Casserole

Submitted by Kim D.

"This casserole is very flavorful and loved by my whole family."

 

• Ready In: 1hr
• Ingredients: 13
• Serves: 8-10

ingredients

• 4 cups mini penne pasta
• 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 lbs lean ground beef
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 (16 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce (such as Ragu Old World)
• 1 (10 ounce) jar pizza sauce (such as Ragu)
• 8 ounces fresh white mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1⁄4 lb sliced pepperoni

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Cook penne pasta until just tender; drain well.
3. Spray a deep 9X13 inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
4. Press penne pasta into the prepared baking dish and set aside to cool.
5. In a large frying pan, cook onion, green bell pepper and garlic in olive oil until veggies are soft.
6. Add ground beef and salt and cook until beef is browned; drain if needed.
7. Add spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce to the browned ground beef; mix well.
8. Allow to simmer while you prepare the mushrooms.
9. Wash and slice mushrooms.
10. Saute mushrooms in butter until mushrooms are soft.
11. Pour ground beef mixture over penne pasta.
12. Top with sauteed mushrooms, shredded mozzarella cheese and pepperoni.
13. Bake, uncovered, for about 30 minutes or until cheese starts to brown slightly.
14. Remove from oven and serve.

Reviews

[1baytown]

Very good! My kids loved this dish. Will make more often! Thanks!

 

[Chef AngieW]

This was very good and a nice dish to make ahead of time and throw in the oven later. I will add more sauce next time and probably mix the pasta in with the meat before putting in the pan. It was a little dry. I did omit the mushrooms because I knew my family wouldn't like them.

 

[J-Lynn]

I would really give this 10 stars; I am so impressed. It is not an overly easy recipe to prepare (so many dishes!), but since there's only two of us, I made it into 3 loaf pans and froze 2 of them. So making 3 meals at once was def. worth it! I used one 26 oz. jar of spaghetti sauce instead of a little of each, then added garlic powder and Italian seasoning to make it more pizza-like. I also left out the mushrooms entirely, used just 1 1/2 lbs. ground beef, and used hard salami in place of pepperoni because that's what I had. The final product looked like it wasn't going to be saucy enough, but all that wonderful flavor in the meat permeated all and made up for it!

 

[looneytunesfan]

My family had mixed feelings about this one. The adults loved it but the kids were not too crazy about it. Their complaint was the onion, bell pepper and mushrooms.... none like those ingredients but I used them anyways and told them to "pick them out". I think this recipe could stand alone by itself without the other ingredients to make is "my kid" friendly so I will be making this again in a couple months without those added. I think it still deserves 5 stars tho.