Deep Dish Italian Meat Pie

Found at Cooks.com for a recipe request. I had to fix the directions as a step was missing. It is delicious and very rich. You could easily halve the Parmesan cheese and have a very tasty dish. Next time, I plan on making the meat filling alone and serving it on a roll with a slice of provolone as sort of an Italian Sloppy Joe.

• Ready In: 55 mins
• Serves: 6-8
• Yields: 1 deep dish pie

Ingredients

• 1  lb lean ground beef or 1  lb Italian sausage
• 1⁄2 cup green pepper, chopped
• 2  teaspoons cornstarch
• 3⁄4 cup water
• 1 (14 1/2ounce) can Italian-style crushed tomatoes, Hunts Italian flavored
• 1  piece garlic, chopped
• 1⁄2 teaspoon basil
• 1⁄4 cup  dehydrated onion, chopped
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1⁄3 cup parmesan cheese, grated and divided in half
• 1 -1 1⁄2 cup mozzarella cheese, grated and divided in half
• 1  deep dish pie shell

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. Brown beef in large skillet.
3. Drain, add green pepper and cook 2 minutes.
4. Dissolve cornstarch in water and add to skillet along with tomatoes and all seasonings.
5. Cover and simmer 10 minutes.
6. Sprinkle half of Parmesan cheese over bottom of pie crust.
7. Cover with half of meat mixture, then half of Mozzarella, followed by the remaining meat mixture.
8. Bake pie on cookie sheet 15 minutes.
9. Sprinkle with remaining Mozzarella cheese and return to oven 5 more minutes or until cheese melts.