Who doesn’t love pizza? And what home cook doesn’t love a good casserole that can feed your family multiple times? Today I’m sharing a recipe that has the best of both worlds, a definitely delectable pizza casserole recipe!
This recipe is budget-friendly and quite modular. You can sub out different “toppings” if you like, and even go more upscale with homemade ingredients. The sky is the limit!
Ingredients
- Bowtie pasta (Or your favorite type of pasta, rotini works well too.)
- Ragu Garden Combination
- Meatballs
- Pepperoni
- Pineapple Tidbits
- Mozzarella Cheese
How To Make My Pizza Casserole Recipe
The first step in making a pizza casserole is to get your sauce going. This meal is something we slap together when we want an easy dinner, so we always go with a store-bought sauce. Ragu’s Garden Combination is our favorite, so that’s what we use. You can sub out your favorite sauce, or even make your own from scratch.
Toss the meatballs into the sauce and allow them to stew in there. Like the sauce, I use store-bought here as well, but you can make your own meatballs if you are going for a scratch dish. You want the meatballs to cook in the sauce so they impart their meaty flavor into it.
While the sauce is cooking, get your pasta water boiling. Simply follow the instructions for the pasta you choose. Make sure you salt the water to season the pasta.
I usually let my sauce simmer for at least 30 minutes. It takes pasta water about 10 minutes to come to a boil, and most pasta takes around 10 minutes to cook. In order to get everything done at the same time, I start the pasta process after the sauce has been cooking for about 10 minutes.
When the pasta is done, strain and leave it in its pot. Add a bit of the pasta sauce to the pasta and return to low heat. Stir the pasta and make sure every bit gets a decent coat of sauce. Now we are ready to assemble.
Assembling The Pizza Casserole
As soon as the sauce and pasta are ready, we can start assembling the casserole. Grab your favorite baking dish and give it a hit of cooking spray. Pour your beautifully sauced pasta into the dish. Make sure you get all of the meatballs that you cooked in your sauce.
Next, we will start adding the other toppings. Toss in your pepperoni and pineapple. Sprinkle some of the mozzarella cheese, but reserve some for later. When these ingredients are in, give the casserole a good store. You want your toppings evenly distributed so every bit has that little extra.
The final step of assembly is to top the casserole with a coat of mozzarella. I like to add pepperoni here too, so it really resembles a pizza.
Cooking the Pizza Casserole
Now that the casserole is assembled, it needs one final cook. The casserole will be baked at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. We just need enough time to melt the cheese and let the topping flavors marry with the sauce.
You can cook this in the conventional oven or use a tabletop variety. We’ve gotten to the point where we use our air fryer for almost everything. It is big enough for family-sized casseroles and doesn’t heat the house up like the big oven. When it’s 95 degrees outside with high humidity, this is a big help.
We are currently using an Aumate air fryer that I picked up on Amazon. I love how simple and easy it is to use.
Once the cheese has melted and the pepperoni has a delicious crispness to them, your casserole is done! I love serving some cheesy stuffed breadsticks with this dish. If you reserve some of the pasta sauce, it is great for dipping! My copycat Chic-Fil-A nuggets utilize Italian breadcrumbs and go great with any dish that uses pasta sauce.
If you like this recipe, check out my amazing homemade lasagna recipe!
[…] other half of this pair is frozen meatballs. I always keep these on hand for things like pasta dishes, meatball subs, or even bbq meatballs. You can cover lunch, dinner, and even appetizers with this […]